Sharpshooter
by Sanru
Summary: There is a new threat in town and the turtles are usure of how to proceed. When a professional sniper is hired to take out the turtles, the green team runs into a difficult problem. How do you defeat someone who can kill you when they’re over a mile away?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…

_My coworker Bob and I were talking about WW2 today during work and the subject of snipers came up. Thus this little story was born so I guess everyone should give Bob around of applause._

_(The turtles and their allies clap in the background)_

_This story is rated 'T' for potty mouths and excess blood and gore and one non-consensual kissing scene that comes (much) later in the story. It's only going to go as far as kissing, I promise._

_Also I've been challenged by my friend, Ben, to have this entire story done by this coming Monday. I guess he feels that it's not fair for me to not post things for long periods of times and leave you all hanging in suspense for weeks at a time. Several of my friends have already begun betting on whether I'll be done in time or not. This is going to be one interesting weekend..._

Sharpshooter

Chapter One

The hotel room was dimly lit with the predawn light that was filtering in through the lace curtains. The five star hotel lived up to its reputation with expensive furnishing and thick carpets. Outside the large windows was a perfect view over the city as well as a front row seat to the Eiffel Tower.

The stillness of the room was broken when a phone went off. The pile of blankets on the bed jerked slightly before laying unmoving again. As the phone continued to ring. The ring tone became more obvious to the person in the bed and with a deep sigh rolled over. A single hand snaked out from under the covers to catch at the purse strap near the bed. After a few tries, the bag was pulled close enough for the hand to fight with the closure on the cell phone pocket. A sleek black phone was finally pulled free and vanished under the covers still playing the Mission Impossible theme song until it was opened. A sleepy voice said, "Speak quickly."

"_Artemis, I assume?_" came a sleek accented voice from the other end.

"Possibly. You have ninety seconds to catch my interest."

"_Oh I think you will be very interested in your target._"

"This isn't some fancy board meeting. You're wasting my time." As the person in the bed became more awake their voice became more and more feminine and angry. She hated it when someone wasted her time.

"_I'm sure you have heard of the mutants crawling around in New York's sewer system._"

"I'm not an exterminator or a hunter."

"_I never said that you were. These mutants may look different but they are really highly trained ninjas warriors that have been causing me no end of trouble. I have been told you are the best._"

She finally emerged from underneath the thick downed comforter with a scowl on her face. The last sentence had been a jab at her reputation which she had held for almost two years. "Don't insult me if you're trying to hire me," she had lowered her voice and half hissed into the phone. A slight Mediterranean accent colored her voice as she continued, "that is enough of a reason for me to kill you."

"_My apologies. I didn't mean to insult you. I am merely saying what I was told._"

"Price?"

"_I'm offering one hundred thousand per mutant. I will have a contact meet with you with more information._"

She stood up from the bed, clutching a sheet around her. She headed towards the laptop set up on the hotel's vanity, "If you have this number I assume you know the rules."

"_There is already two hundred fifty thousand sitting in your account. The rest will be sent to you after the creatures' demise._"

She typed a few commands into her computer and brought up her account information. Sure enough, the desired amount was resting in her account. "You agree with all the other terms in the contract?"

"_But of course. I wouldn't be calling you otherwise._"

A smile graced her lips as she typed in a few more commands. "Very well. It was a pleasure doing business with you Mister Saki," she didn't wait for an answer. As the phone clicked shut she was already purchasing plane tickets and making reservations at a hotel in Manhattan. She then set up a download program to pull as much information off the Internet as possible about the mutants. As an afterthought she also began to download information on her new employer.

As her computer ran she looked up at her reflection in the mirror and gasped. Her black hair was frizzed and sticking up in several places giving her hair a very tousled look. There were red strips here and there, crisscrossing over her fair skin from where the sheets had wrinkled when she slept. The sheet that she had wrapped around her nude body just added to her appearance. Green eyes met their reflection in the mirror as she said out loud, "I look like I just had sex." She looked over herself again. "Very hot, kinky, wild monkey sex to be exact."

She twisted around and glanced at the clock. Her flight didn't leave until ten that morning and it wasn't even six yet. She stood and headed for the closed door that led to the bathroom. She had more then enough time for a nice long, hot shower before she left. She could read up on her targets during the flight.

She opened the door and wrinkled her nose in disgust at the metallic smell permeating the room. Her eyes ran over the bloody walls and floor before resting on a man in a business suit. Most of his face was missing from the bullet wound which made him even harder to identify.

"Oh that's right," she addressed the corpse. "I'm sorry. I forgot you were in here." She closed the door and walked towards her suit case and carry on. She knew that she could find another hotel elsewhere to shower in. She really didn't need one, but it would help her tame her hair back into its regular sleek straight self.

She began to fish clothing out of her bag and glanced at the clock. She would rent a room for an hour or two before her flight so she could clean up. She wanted to give off a semi professional air when meeting her employers contact. After all the best way to make a good first impression was through your appearance.

She arrived in New York that afternoon cursing time zones under her breath as she walked off the plane. Now she was tired and cranky and wanting nothing more then to find a bed and take a quick nap. Her eyes went to the line of people standing there with signs and balloons and other paraphernalia waiting for friends, family, and business partner as they disembarked from the plane.

A simple yet elegant sign saying Karen A. T. James caught her attention. That was the name on her bounce account where all contractors sent her money to. Saki's personal probably figured out her alias by her account numbers the same way she had done to him.

The sign was being held by a young Asian woman who she recognized as the famed Oroku Saki's daughter, Karai. She felt honored that the business man had sent his own daughter to finish the negotiations with her. She turned and walked towards her. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Karen," Karai said as she walked up to her. "I am Karai and will be escorting you to your room."

She gave the women a side way glare. "Hardly. I've already provided myself with accommodations for my stay here. Once we're done finishing negotiations I can handle it myself." She didn't wait for a response as she headed for the baggage claim.

Several minutes later, she was crawling into the back of a limo with Karai following her. She sat in the plush seat facing the women across from her. They sat in silence, each sizing up the other as the limo pulled away from the curb. Karai finally broke the silence. "My master does not like it when his generosity is turned away."

She shrugged, "I'm leery about accepting rooms from strangers. No offenses to your master but a number of previous employers have tried to kill me by blowing up my room. I've learned to be extra cautious in my business dealings."

Karai watched her as if waiting for more before saying, "I will inform my master of that." She then reached over and pulled out a briefcase that had been hidden by the seat. She keyed out the combination and then handed it to her.

She popped the briefcase open and removed several folders each with Renaissance artists' names on the headings that she could only assume were the mutants' names. She flipped open one such folder that was called 'Leonardo' and breezed over the contents. Some of the information she had already gleamed off of the internet but most of it was information that she hadn't even seen before.

"Everything that we know about them are in those files," Karai said. "Their fighting styles, weapons of choice, and even where they are most commonly seen."

She held up a folder titled 'Casey Jones' with a dark look. "I wasn't paid for these," her tone promised pain and ultimately death.

"Those are for reference," Karai replied unfazed. "You don't have to… destroy them. However, if you do, a bonus will be added to the rest of your pay."

"Do you require a trophy or such as proof?"

"No. If you do succeed we will know within the day."

"I see that these things give you no end of trouble." She chuckled as she tucked the folders into her carry-on. "If you will take me to the Hilton over on Third I will begin my half of the deal."

"Are you sure you won't be taking the room we have provided for you? It is in the same building, and I can assure you that you will be reimbursed for the room you have purchased in full."

She sat and thought about for a minute before saying, "I will inspect the room very carefully. If I find so much as one bug then the deal is off and I will keep the deposit."

"Very well."

The room was clean of any bugs, time bombs, or any other nasty surprise she would find at a later date. After Karai had left she went into the bathroom and double checked it for surveillance equipment. When the searched turned up bare again, she turned to the single suitcase she had.

Opening the suitcase revealed a full disguise kit worthy of a Hollywood actor. Everything from wigs to make up to colored contacts to specially designed ear covers were carefully stored inside. She reached inside and pulled out a short chopped brown wig, green contacts and a small device designed to locate trackers.

She then turned to her reflection and pulled the blonde wig off her head, storing it inside the case were it belonged once more. She washed her face free of the make-up she currently had on. With her face cleaned she put on the wig, adjusting it so it was just right, then taking out several different bases and foundations hid the barely noticeable line that the wig made across her forehead.

The contacts went in and she pulled green eye liner and eye shadow from the make-up case. She only applied as much as necessary to help highlight the green in her eyes. She then put that back into the case. Red lip liner and lip stick was applied. She looked herself over in the mirror one more time to see is she could see anything she had missed.

With a nod of satisfaction to her reflect, she packed up her stuff and left the room. She may have told Karai she would stay there but she had learned never to trust her benefactors. Nine times out of ten they tried to have her killed so as not to pay her well deserved fees.

A taxi ride later she was on her way to a penthouse suit that she kept in the city. She had a numbers of 'homes' dotted across the world all owned by several rich young ladys'. She found it easier to have a base when doing her job. Occasionally she had to use a hotel room but the benefits of owning a 'home' meant she didn't have to haul around her equipment.

She was unlocking the room to her 'home' several moments later and stepped inside with a sigh. She hadn't been to her New York sky rise in over a year. It had been one of her first bases and the closest thing she had to an actual home. She sighed at she walked through the penthouse looking fondly at the modern styled furniture and the collection of trinkets she had started to acquire in her business dealings. She eventually ended up in the bedroom where she became reacquainted with the Californian King bed for a good five hour nap.

She woke that evening and after a large five course meal delivered by a nearby five star restaurant, she glanced at the time. It was almost eight at night which meant that her targets would be out soon. According to the information she had they were most often seen between nine to one at night. It was time for her to get to work.

After a quick shower she went to the back wall in her walk in closet. "Voice authorization initiate. Code word, Artemis." Several confirmation beeps later, the back panel slid away showing that there was at least half of the room blocked off.

What a room it was. Though it was small it was high effective in hiding her work shop and armory. One wall was holding a plethora of custom made guns that she had designed and built on her own. Several of them had taken months to fine tune and design. On the opposite side of the room was a small and compact, yet highly efficient workshop. There she could repair, refurbish, and even hand craft new designs. The smallest wall was filled with shelves that held supplies for her craft, ammo, a very well stock first aid kit that she had yet to use, and a special designed outfit she wore on her 'outings'.

The first part to go on was a skin tight, Lycra body suit that helped to keep her warm up on the roofs. A pair of black cushioned socks and a pair of heavy duty pants went over her legs. A black long sleeve shirt that had been reinforced with a layer of Kevlar went over her head followed by a vest that was also lined with Kevlar. She then strapped on gladiator boots with her pants tucked down into the knee high leather cuffs.

She paused as she was buckling them on. Two of the turtles -Raphael and Leonardo if she remembered right- both wielded blades. Both were also reported to be able to disarm gun welders by either throwing the sai to block the barrel or just cutting off the barrel. She hoped to be able to defeat them before they came within striking distance but if they did get close enough to her she had no way to properly defend herself from a sword strike or sai slash.

She knocked her fist on the metal plating that made a shin guard over the boot several times, testing it's strength. She had learned kicking boxing a while ago and had modified the boot so that if anyone was able to get close to her it would only take one powerful kick with the reinforced shin guard to cave in the side of their head. She stood and wrote down a quick note on the pad resting on the bench. If she had a pair of arm guards under her jacket similar to the shin guards then she should be able to effectively stop a strike. The heavy lining in the coat would also help to stop the blades.

With that minor technicality dealt with she returned to suiting up. Next were the belts and holsters that would hold her extra equipment in case she had need for it. A double shoulder holster went over her shoulders and were loaded with her specially design T-Bird Fives, a five millimeter hand gun that was light weight and exceedingly versatile being able to hold a number of her special and regular ammo. Another gun was slid into the small of her back. While it looked like a flare gun, the Orion was her large ammo gun holding in its chambers two flares and six explosive shells that detonated on impact with a surface after they had been fired.

Around her waist went a belt cover in pockets which held some of her specialty shots and the conventional ammo that could be bought over the counter as well as some supportive gear like an emergency first aid kit and surveillance equipment. Her Peacemaker -a small snubbed nosed revolver type gun designed for firing three different non lethal gas 'bullets'- went into a holster on the side. On her left thigh went a holster and on the other a pouch. The pouch held a special piece of equipment for her Sensei that allowed it to fire darts instead of bullets. In the holster was a hand crossbow that she called Valkyrie. One of her least used weapons it was also one of her most deadly being the only one to be able to fire a Black Widow. A dart that killed the target in less then twenty seconds every time. She also used it for firing grappling hooks across gaps if she couldn't throw it far enough.

Her second to last common weapon she commonly carried with her were a pair of wakizashi blades that went into sheaths built into the outer side of her boots. She wasn't very good at close range fighting but she was still highly skilled in it. The short blades she only used as a last resort when she ran out of ammo and she had to get close to finish her target. Everything she had seen about these mutants showed her that if they were able to engage her in hand to hand without her guns she wouldn't last long. It would be best to take them out before they were able to get her into their striking distance.

With all her weapons in places she then reached for the ankle length black coat. All of her equipment was black and the jacket was really her secret to defense. It was also lined with Kevlar giving her three layers of protection against bullets and knives. In several key areas were thin metal sheets that protected her vital points even more, especially if she had to fire off an explosive shell close to her vicinity. It also made it hard to detect what she was doing in the dark. For all someone knew her leg could be coming up in a snap kit or she could be aiming the Valkyrie at their heart.

Into her eyes went a pair of specially designed contacts that helped to refract light. They didn't give her total night vision but with the help of the moon could make it seem like she was walking around in a gray shaded daylight. They were an invention she had 'sweet talked' a target into making for her before she had eliminated him.

She quickly braided her hair into its traditional braid before slipping on her gloves that were designed to protect her hands from heat in case of an accident backfire. They had hardened strike points in them to help give her punches extra strength like brass knuckles did. The palms were reinforced with Kevlar as well in case she had to point blank fire a round and had to protect her face from flying bone shrapnel or to catch a knife.

The grand finale of her thirty minute suit up ritual was gently removed from its place of honor on the armory wall. The Sensei was the secret to her success and her pride and joy as it was her crown achievement in her self customized gun selection. It was a high powerful yet exceedingly light weight sniper rifle that she carried strap to her back. It had claimed the majority of her targets and she hoped to be able to take the mutants down with it.

"All the kung-fu moves in the world won't be able to protect you from a sniper round over a mile away," she said as she adjusted the strap and left the room. As she walked out of her workshop the wall automatically slid back into place. She padded quietly across the darken bedroom and out onto the balcony, hoping up onto railing and looking out over the city.

"Watch out turtles," she purred into the gentle night breeze. "Artemis is on the hunt."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…

_Another chapter up, go me! Three should be up later tonight or tomorrow morning._

Sharpshooter

Chapter Two

Something was wrong. He wasn't sure what but something was definitely wrong. He looked around the rooftop he had stopped on but didn't see any enemy. His brothers were all back in the lair, choosing to watch a movie marathon then going topside to bash some heads, so he knew they weren't playing Man Hunt with him.

Yet he knew someone was watching him.

"Hey Raph!" He looked at Casey who was standing on the roof he had been preparing to jump to before he felt that someone was watching him. The mask vigilante was the only other person he could see nearby. He looked around again as his buddy yelled, "What's the hold up?!"

Cautiously, he jumped over to stand next to his human friend. "Something's watching us," he said in a low voice, hoping to not alert whoever it was that he was on to them. "Not sure where they are or even who it is but something definitely watching us."

"You sure," Casey flipped his hockey mask up and looked around. "Raph," he said after a moment of fruitless looking. "We're the only ones up here."

Raphael shook his head back and forth. There was something out there, he just knew it. He wasn't good at 'sensing' things like Leo and Don but he knew that there was something out there. Something bad. If he was a dog, he knew his hackles would be up and a growl would be coming from his throat. "Casey," he said at length. "We're calling it a night."

"Dude! You're going to let a bad feeling spoil our fun?"

"Yeah. Let's get you home."

"You don't need to baby-sit me!"

Raphael knew that Casey could handle himself in most fights but there was just something about leaving him alone out in the open tonight that worried him. He didn't like it. "Whatever. Get moving."

"Awww man," he friends moaned as he started for the other side of the roof they were on. Casey would have rather stay out beating up punks and Foot ninjas but he had never seen Raphael act like he was. Though he was trying to appear tough, the turtle was acting almost skittish and that sent a chill down Casey's spine. Raph wasn't afraid of anything. "You ruin all my fun."

Almost a mile away, a lone figure was laying on her stomach on a roof in the shadow of a small shed. A breeze pushed at the figure and only succeeded in making a few of the loose hairs on the thick black braid to flap around and rustling the coat. In a barely noticeable movement, Sensei followed the turtle and human as they made their way across the rooftops.

It would have been easy to pull the trigger right then and there but Artemis stayed her hand. This was purely a reconnaissance mission to verify the information she had found and received. She was the best because she rarely fired off random shoots and alerted her targets to her presences unnecessarily.

Silently and patiently, she watched as the two reached the human's apartment and the man slipped inside. The turtle seemed to tell him something that the man disagreed with. After a quick and heated debate, the man slammed the pane down and the turtle headed for the manhole cover in the alley next to the building. He vanished into the sewers and Artemis sighed, disappointed that she hadn't learned anything more. _At least I know they live in the sewers_, she thought to herself.

He crouched down next to a pile of refuse and listen to the near silence of the night, trying to pinpoint any threat in the area. Yup, something was definitely there. Raphael had been right. There was some kind of new threat in the city.

His eyes slowly ran over the piles of junk surrounding him and up on the buildings around the junkyard. It was just as Raphael had said the previous night when he had came home winded and just generally spooked. You could senses danger yet there was nothing nearby. He listened closely to his surroundings but other then the faint roar of the city and a frog croaking nearby it was silent.

It had just been a quick trip up to the junkyard that Donatello hadn't thought to tell anyone of where he was going. He needed one last piece to finish his latest project and he knew right where it was. Even as he crouched there he could see the fuse pack sitting on a pile less then ten feet from him.

However, that meant he had ten feet of completely open space. There was no cover and he would be out in the open for a good twenty two point five four seconds. Something about that made him rethink his plan. Whatever was out there would definitely see him.

Yet his project just needed that last component to be complete. When you lived in a sewer you realized how vital it was to have waterproofed everything. Donatello waterproofed most everything in the lair except for the back up generator which he was always fussing with to keep in good working order. A hassle that had grown tiresome lately and needed to be dealt with swiftly so that other pursuits could be accomplished without the interruptions of the needed repairs.

Now his generator project was almost complete but he couldn't rationalize the lost of his life for a piece of machinery. He turned away from the pile of electronics facing the way home. He was so close yet so far from completing his job. Silently the brainy turtle ducked and weaved through the junk yard heading for the manhole cover he frequently used. He stayed as low as possible and moved swiftly. With every passing second he was above ground his mind urged him to get to cover.

He slid quickly into the manhole cover closing it behind him with a kur-thunk. He landed in the ankle deep water and paused, listening to see if anything was above him near the manhole. After a full minute he turned away frowning. Raph had said that the minute he was below ground he was safe and nothing had even tried to follow him home. With a frown Donatello headed towards the lair always checking over his shoulder for any unwanted company.

Up on street level, hiding in the supports of the nearby bridge, Artemis lowered Sensei with a frown. According to all the reading she had done, Donatello loved to explore the junkyard for gadgets and could almost always be found there poking around. Yet he had left before he had even begun to go through the trash. _According to the reports they're mutated turtles_. _It could be that their animal instincts are alerting them to danger_.

A sly smile twisted across her face. _That just makes it more of a challenge_.

_And more fun…_

The only movement on the rooftop was the dust being pushed about in the gentle breeze. The peacefulness was lost to him as a feeling of impending doom loomed in the air around them. His let his eyes close and used his other senses to try and sense the threat but he couldn't sense anything. Anything that was nearby, anyways.

He opened his eyes and looked out over the city. Both Raph and Don had been right, there was something new in the city. New and dangerous, especially for them. He watched the city lights for a moment before turning away.

"Any luck?" his younger brother asked. He was perched on a ventilation fan nearby keeping a look out. When Don had came back to the lair after a quick trip to the junkyard jumping at every little noise he had decided that it was time to figure out what this new threat was and how to best neutralize it.

Leonardo had split them into two recon teams. Donatello and Raphael had the East side while he and Mikey had taken the West. They had been on the look for this new threat and despite a threatening feeling in the air there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"No," he replied to Mikey as he thoughtfully put his hand to his chin. "It just doesn't make sense."

"I know what you mean. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing on end screaming 'hide before it gets you' but I don't see anything." The youngest turtle fidgeted with the nunchaku in his hands. "It's really creepy."

Leo opened his mouth to reply only to have his shell cell begin to ring. Michelangelo jumped a good three feet in the air and let out a high pitch scream which showed Leo how on edge he was. He answered the phone as he watched Mikey hold his chest panting as if he had just ran a marathon. "Yeah?"

"_Nothing,_" Raphael's voice reported over the phone. "_The goggles aren't picking up anything. There isn't even a creepy feeling in the air._"

"Well, at least now we know whatever it is it's on the West side."

"_But the junkyard's over here._"

"So it moves?"

"_Most likely_," Don's voice suddenly came over the phone and Leonardo could nearly picture his genius brother listening to the conversation from over Raph's shoulder. "_So that rules out any form of surveillance sensors_."

"_Geez Don_," Raph groaned. "_Try and deafen me why don'tcha_?"

Leo smiled briefly, he had been right. The smile quickly vanished as the more serious question came up. "So what is it?"

There was a brief scuffle as the phone was handed over and Leo heard Raph tell Don to take the phone. "_It's hard to say_," Don was clearly holding the phone now because his voice was much clearer and louder then it had been. "_Considering all the alien technology Shredder has acquired it could be anything. We're going to need more information to figure out what this thing is_."

Leo sighed, he had been afraid of that. He had hoped that they would just be able to find a sensor or some other form of devices and put and end to this whole fiasco by kicking it off a building but if this thing was moving around then it could be any number of things. All of which he hoped weren't true. "Alright," he said at length. "What are we looking for?"

"_Honestly? I have no idea, Leo,_" there was a soft sigh from the other end and Leo could understand Donnie's frustration. Rarely did his genius of a brother like to say anything even remotely close to 'I don't know'. "_We need to find a clue or even whatever it is itself. There's not enough information to put together a logical explaination or even hypothesizes what this thing is._"

"Then we'll find it," Leo said with determination. A familiar feeling of protectiveness filled him when he realized that he had to strike before this thing struck his family. "Right now we know it's over here. You and Raph swing up to the north and Mikey and I will head south. Keep in touch and stick to the shadows." He looked up at the sky line of the city, "Keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary." He found his eyes drawn to one part of the skyline in particular. His eyes bore into the building before adding, "And be careful." Even after hearing his brother sign off and flipping his own phone shut, Leo's eyes held that spot.

"Whatcha looking at?" Mikey's voice finally broke him out of his revere and he looked at his little brother who had come to stand next to him, peering over his shoulder and squinting his eyes as though it would help him to see what his brother was looking at.

Leo sighed and turned away. "Nothing."

As the two turtles headed south over the rooftops Artemis lowered her rifle with a frown. It had been like he had known where she was laying in wait. She had never had someone standing over a mile from her look right back at her through her own scope. To say she had been slightly unnerved was an understatement.

What had really sent a chill down her spine had been the mutant's eyes. The mask did and admirable job of making him appear menacing and intimidating but through the high power scope she could stare into his eyes. They were pools of deep thought, clouded over with a sense of justice and tinted with protectiveness. They reminded her of a mother bear see had seen once in a zoo with a cub. She was glaring at the visitors that stood above it on the walkway, leaning on the railing as if challenging them to get closer to her infant.

He was the most dangerous one she decided as she slithered back from the ledge. She stood and twisted Sensei around so that it rested with the tip of its barrel down near her left, the main chambers resting in the small of her back and the shoulder rest just barely peeking over her shoulder. She tightened the strap that crossed over her chest before walking away. As she neared the opposite edge of the building she reached into one of her belt pouches and pulled out a pair of suko spikes. Which she fit over her gloves seconds before she seemingly jumped of the edge of the building.

Just as the roof past her head, Artemis reached out and weakly dragged the tips of the suko spikes on the concrete. There wasn't enough power to stop her fall but it was enough to send back into towards the building. She landed with a dull thump on the window ledge below the roof. Again she leaped off the ledge and proceeded in that manner descending from her perch.

Ten stories later instead of leaping down, Artemis used a nearby flag pole to bounce over the street and land lightly on another building nearby. Then she was off running, leaping, and flipping over the concrete jungle. The suko spikes were used to slow her descent and help to give her and extra boast when climbing over obstacles. Sometimes they were lightly dragged over a surface to help her angle herself into better positions for advancement towards her goal.

She was soon kneeling on a roof of the building on the opposite side of the street that her goal rested on. The Second Time Around Antique Shop was as dark and quiet as the apartment above it. April O'Neil was another human promenade human companion to the turtles. There were reports of other human allies like a group of homeless men and a teenaged girl with pink hair but April and Casey seemed to have special ties to them.

That was the whole reason why she was there in the first place. Information was the key to her success for a reason she was methodical and rarely ever did anything on impulse. Silently as a ghost she bounded across the street and easily undid the lock on the window. She slid into the apartment and paused listening. From the other room she could hear gentle, steady breathing. _ Perfect_.

From her belt she drew a small, thin rectangular object that looked like a PEZ dispenser with no articulated head on it. Pushing her finger forward along the top of the devices, she stopped when a small black disc -barely the size of a dime- began to emerge from the end. Place the tip of the black disc underneath the molding of the window sill she dragged the tip and pushed the side of her finger along the top of the rectangle. The small circular device was left in its wake.

She went around the apartment staying low and listening for any sounds from the bedroom. She liberally place the small microphones through out the kitchen and living room area. She left both the bathroom and bedroom untouched. Listening in on 'private activities' was something she didn't want to have any part in. She even took the time to slip one of her bugs into the seam of a jacket that was thrown over the arm of the couch. Just before she slipped out the window she checked a small PDA to make sure that all of her bugs were functioning perfectly.

She closed and relocked the window behind her before she headed home for the night. Her mind began going through a list of thing s she would need to do the following morning. She knew that the confrontation with the turtles was fast approaching. She moved the reinforced arm bands to the top of her list as well as cleaning her current weapons. Even thought they had yet to be fired, the wind was blowing dust into them as she lay still in the darkness for hours. She decided that if she had some free time the following day, she would call her favorite massage therapist. After all, she should be treated as well as she treated her weapons so she could stay in top condit-

She sighed in exasperation when she realized she was being followed.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…

_Yeah I know I lied again. This story is defiantly not getting done by tonight. I'm blaming my sister on this who decided to go home and tell Mom I was coming up to before clearing it with me. (Shoots sister and angry glare). However, I guess Ben is one hunderd and fifty dollars richer, wish he would share..._

_Anyways, the story is pretty much typed so the rest of it should be posted by this weekend (as long as I have no other roadtrips). Also, for those of you following_ Coffee Cups and Late Night Talks _a new chapter will be posted in the ext few days. I have also decided one-shots are the bane of my life because I have another to be posted sometime this weekend or early next week._

_Also I should apoligize to Windwalker, I had little scene breaks in the story but I guess they didn't upload properly._

Sharpshooter

Chapter 3

It wasn't one of the mutants. The person's steps were too loud. The stride was off as well. They footfalls were longer, indicating that the person had longer legs and was therefore taller then the terrapins. She continued to act out of the ordinary as the chase continued over the rooftops.

She put on an extra burst of speed so she could clear the gap and scramble up the last few feet to the next rooftop. The roof held a water tower and a shed as well as several large fan units and ventilation shafts. That would be where she would take out her unwanted tag along. Permanently if need be.

She made the jump with ease and pulled herself up the last few feet with the grace and agility of a cat. She stayed low as she went over the roof, casting about the different random hiding places and finally choosing a ventilation cover that's fans weren't going at the moment. She tucked herself down in the shadows and waited.

Sure enough the person followed, having some difficulty when they pulled themselves over the ledge. It was quiet as the person moved about the rooftop looking for her or any sign of her. As he got closer to her hiding place she slipped further back into the shadows and listened for the person. She kept him on the opposite side of the vent cover as she crawled around behind it. When she reached the opposite side of the fan she peeked around and rolled her eyes at who it was.

Casey Jones stood with his back to her looking around to where she had originally had been. He did a quick look over the roof as if expecting her to stand up and wave to him. She remained still as his eyes passed over her several times. Her dark clothing and hair made it hard to see her in the gloom. The fact that she only had one eye peeking out at him didn't help him much.

Finally he stopped scanning the rooftop and mumbled, "Damn." With a sigh he reached for something in his pocket. Artemis watched as he fought with his pant pocket's material for a few moments while it held onto whatever he was reaching for. Finally he pulled it free.

Moving with the stealth of a cat, Artemis crept from her hiding spot and slipped up behind the man. As the cell phone opened in his hand, Artemis came to stand directly behind him. In one swift movement the assassin brought her hand down in one quick motion. Casey grunted as pain erupted in the side of his neck briefly before his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed to the roof.

Artemis stood above him calmly, her hand still in the air from the simple karate chop she had given the man. As she stood there she wondered if the man had seen her at April's store. If he had, he might have guessed that she was planting bugs. She thought about the file that had been given to her by Karai and then dismissed the notion of Casey guessing about the bug planting. According to the Foot, he was a brawler and an exceptional fighter but not much of a genius. Besides, he had been making enough noise following her that she would have heard him well before then.

She sighed and walked away from the prone man. The bonus money was a tempting offer but she just didn't see the point in killing him. He wasn't originally in the contract and he was too much of an easy kill for her. Besides it was late and she was more interested in going to bed then killing someone.

She turned and began to walk away with her arms folded up behind her head. She rolled then twice and was satisfied to hear several pops. "I'm getting to old for this," she mumbled as she approached the edge of the roof. Right before she could jump off the building a startled scream pierced the night air. "CASEY!" She ducked back and plastered herself in the nearest shadow of the tool shed in less then a second. She stayed low and silently pulled one of her T-Bird Fives free. She clicked the safety off and waited.

Seconds later, a pair of twin thumps and a mad scramble of feet sounded on the opposite side of the tool shed. She peeked out around the shed with her gun held at ready and watched as two of her targets fell to their knees beside their friend. The movements were jerky and frantic as they rolled over the human and checked his pulse and vitals. One turtle -the one with his back to her- ripped the hockey mask from his face and roughly grabbed his chin.

"Casey! Casey! God dammit! Wake up you sack of shit! Casey! What the hell happened? Case-" he raised his hand as if to slap the unconscious man but was restraint when a gentle hand caught his wrist.

"Raph," said the turtle that Artemis now identified as Donatello. "He's just unconscious. He should be fine when he wakes up."

She looked over the other turtle and subconsciously tightened her grip on her firearm. Raphael was the last turtle she wanted to get into a close quarters fight with. Without the specialized arm guards that were still in the design stage back at her shop, she knew she would be a pincushion in seconds. According to the reports on him he specialized in close quarters combat.

She must have a made a noise or Raphael was just overly tense because he suddenly jumped up and whirled towards her hiding spot in a blur of motion. He stare evenly at the shed and drew his sais, clutching them so that his fingers rested between the prongs. Artemis stayed still and unmoving, calmly watching the turtle as he started to slowly advance on the shed.

She debated whether or not she should shoot the turtle. The shot would be clean and easy, a simple step around the shed and he would be dead. The problem lay in the other turtle that would no doubt move when his brother's head exploded with the sound of a gun shot. The rooftop that helped her to hide from Casey would then give the advantage to Donatello.

Her eyes briefly flickered from the turtle approaching her to the turtle still kneeling next to Casey so she could try and judging the time window she would have to hit him before he could get to cover. She did a double take when she realized that he wasn't there. She gritted her teeth behind her lips as she looked back to Raphael who was still advancing.

As swiftly and silently as possible she reached into her belt and pulled out the Peacemaker. She knew that Donatello was trying to flank her and because her lack of attention he was most probably almost on top of her by now. She knew that she couldn't give herself away this early in the game. It had been bad enough that one of there allies had seen her. Even if it was only from behind and for a few blocks, the vigilante would no doubt describe it to his buddies.

With it too early to kill and finding herself out flanked, Artemis found herself readying to withdraw. With years of practiced she loaded one of her specialty gas bullets into the empty chamber of the Peacemaker with her free hand. The procedure was relatively quiet but with his full attention on the tool shed, Artemis was sure Raphael heard the soft clicks that the gun produced.

"Alright, whoever you are," the red masked turtle growled. Artemis hated it when she was right. "Come out here where I can see ya." She took a deep breath, tightening her left hand around the Peacemaker, she was going to have to do this fast.

Raphael was just opening his mouth again when he saw a blur of movement and heard a loud crack as someone half leaped out from behind the shed. He didn't get a good look at the figure or even have a chance to say anything as something hit him right in the throat. The projectile was small -maybe about the size of a tootsie roll- but the velocity at which it was traveling made it feel like Hun had just punched him in throat. He grunted in pain but the air was suddenly filled with smoke and instead of oxygen he found himself coughing and gasping trying to drag air into his startled lungs.

Donatello who had been sneaking around to try and out flank whoever had hidden behind the shed just heard Raphael grunt in pain as smoke suddenly exploded from about where he had been on the roof. What had really scared Donnie was a loud crack that came seconds before Raph's grunt and the smoke.

Someone had fired a gun.

He stayed low as possible and went to go around the vent he was hiding behind only to jerk back behind the relative safety of it when the gun went off again. It was fired three times in rapid succession from somewhere near the shed. Panic and worry began to seize him but Don forced himself to stay calm. Hopefully Raph and Casey were all right. He would do no go to them if he was shot.

Even though the smoke clouded his vision he had memorized where the structures were when he had first jumped to this roof. The wild card was the unknown gunman. He could move anywhere at anytime and the flimsy aluminum vent covers offered little protect from any of the bullets.

Slowly and cautiously Don slipped around the vent staying very low and using all his skills in stealth. He took his time as he headed to where Raphael and Casey were listening carefully for any sounds from the gunman. However, all he heard were the hacking coughs his brother was admitting as he tried to clear his airways. Silently Don breathed a sigh of relief that Raphael was still alive and by the sounds of it still breathing.

"Don!?" Raph called between his tortured coughs. As far as he could tell the shoots had been fired towards where Don had been sneaking up on the back of the shed. The well being of his brother became more important to him then his own. He knew that if that gunman had any skill he would be able to target him on the sounds of his voice alone and he didn't give a flying piece of crap. "Where are ya!? Donnie!?"

The smoke had begun to dissipate and Donatello briefly looked around to see where the gunman was. Other then his brother waving his hands around in front of his face to help clear the smoke faster the rooftop was empty. He glanced around at the rooftops nearby but they too were empty. He calmly stood from his hiding place and approached his brother as he tucked his bo staff away. A swift glance towards Casey's prone form showed him to be in the exact position and shape they had first found him.

"Yer alright?" Raph said with a grimace as he rubbed at his sore throat. Talking was obviously bugging him and his voice was more gruff then it usually was.

"Fine. You?" Don said as he watched his brother rub at his throat. He didn't see any blood but by the looks of it Raphael had been hit with something.

"Something hit me," Raph said still rubbing at his throat. He pulled his hand away briefly and looked at his palm to see if he was bleeding.

Donatello glanced down at the ground and looked around for anything out of the ordinary. He noticed next to his foot was a small grayish lump that was completely alien to him. He knelt and lifted the strange object examine it more closely. It reminded him of the instant Pillsbury 'pop and fresh dough' cans that Mikey sometimes used when he wanted to add a quick little something to a meal but didn't want to spend the time to make it from scratch.

"Hey Don. Stop thinking for a second and wake up this goofball so we can figure out what is going on." Raph said as he moved over to Casey. He took a fist full of his shirt and held him up. "Yo Case. Wake up and tell us what the hell is going on."

Don ignored his brother for a moment, tucking the odd shaped cylinder into a small sealable plastic bag he carried around in his belt. He then headed towards the shed and peeked around the back wall to see if anyone was still hiding there, though he doubted it. Sure enough the gunman was gone. Donatello was about to turn back to his brother when he noticed three large holes in the brick shed's wall. Each hole was about size of a cup saucer and was slightly above chest level to him.

"Whatcha looking at?" his brother's scratchy voice came from behind his back as he walked over to see what Donatello was looking at. He regarded the holes in the wall that Donatello was currently sticking his index finger into. "Why'd he shoot the wall?"

Don frowned as he pulled his finger out of the hole. "I'm not sure," he said with a frustrated sigh.

"Then what's you're best guess? I know you got one of those."

"The only reason that I can think of is that the gunman knew I would act more cautious and move about slower if I knew they had a live firearm. You were out of commission from whatever this thing is," Don held up the capsule, "To give them the time to escape he need to slow me down considerably. Since he didn't know were I was he obviously fired off three warning shots."

"So where this guy go?"

"He could've gone anywhere," Don said glancing around at the nearby rooftops. "With the two of us blinded by the smoke and leery of being shot he could've taken off in any direction."

"Peachy. Now what then, Einstein?"

He gave his older brother a withered look, "Casey might know what was going on more then we do. Our best bet is get him somewhere safe –probably April's, it's closer- and wait for him to wake up. Think you can carry him?"

"Why do I have to carry him?"

"Because –as you always have a habit of pointing out- you're stronger."

Raphael was seriously debating wiping that smirk of his brother's face but decided against it. He wasn't sure if that gunman had actually left and the sooner he had Donnie and Casey out of the open he would feel better. He stomped away from Don, who was pulling out his shell cell to give Leo and April a call and let them know what had happened, and grumbled under his breath. He hoisted his human friend up onto his shoulders and let out a mild curse when he saw that his golf bag was still laying on the rooftop.

"-thanks April. We'll be there soon." Don reached passed him and stood the gold bag up, dropping the hockey mask he had retrieved inside it. He slung the bag up over his shoulder as if it was his duffel and he flipped his phone shut. "April is getting the first aid kit and Leo and Mikey are on their way."

"Great," Raph said as he shifted the dead weight around on his shoulders so it rode better. "I told this nitwit to stay inside for the rest of the week. Ya think he would listen to me for once?"

Donatello wisely kept his mouth shut as they headed for April's apartment. Occasionally he would glance over his shoulders or look around at the surrounding rooftops. The gunman was most likely long gone but it paid to be prepared just in case. He didn't want them to become ambushed out in the open like they were but it was faster to get to April's over the rooftops and he was worried Casey had suffered a concussion.

Artemis released as shaky sigh as the two turtles made a beeline for their friend's home. She had been worried that she wouldn't be fast enough to avoid being seen by Raphael before she was able to fire the smoke capsule. Since both of the turtles kept calling her a gun**man** she could only assume that it had worked.

She drew herself up until she was crouching on the roof of the water tower instead of lying on it with both guns at ready. She could just see the turtles as they bounced over the rooftops back the way she had come from. Their movements were too erratic for her to get off a clear shot as the moved away. She thought she could hear a little voice in her head telling her she should have at least killed one when she had a chance but quickly shook that thought away. She was not ready to try and take any of them in hand to hand combat just yet. It was all she could do to scale the side of the water tower without attracting their attention.

The turtles were no longer in sight. She stood up and slipped her guns away into their respective holsters. Her wrist popped as she pulled her hand away from the Peacemakers holster and she sighed. All she really wanted was to go to bed. She had already had a long night. However the information she could learn at the apartment that night was just too good to pass up so with a suffering sigh she headed back to across town towards the O'Neil residence.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…

Sharpshooter

Chapter Four

Mikey had come to the decision that tonight was a very bad night. Bolting across town after his older brother who had just received a phone call saying one of their best friends had been knocked out and that his other two brothers had been attacked by an unknown assailant had been bad enough. Sitting in April's apartment waiting to find out what had happened to Casey was even worst. Michelangelo found it hard not to move around and break the pressing silence because he really didn't want to tick off Raphael. That turtle was doing a very admirable job of wearing a hole in the floor down to the shop and grumbling about breaking Casey's face after he heard what had happened to him.

After assuring himself that both Don and Raphwere okay, Leonardo found himself standing in the center of the room watching as April and Don checked over and attempted to revive Casey faster. Actually Don was doing that. April was whispering words into her boyfriend's ear as she held one hand and pressed her free hand to his forehead. She seemed on the verge of tears but held them back bravely because of Don's quiet reassurances that he was going to be fine.

While the group inside waited to hear from their friend, a black cloaked figure landed silently next to a chimney on the opposite side of the street. Artemis quickly tucked herself down alongside the brick work of a chimney. Encased in shadows and hidden from view she placed an ear bud in her ear and activated the wireless reception for her bugs.

With the bugs transmitting perfectly, she reached up and pulled Sensei from her back. She leveled it on the windows and adjusted the scope accordingly. She left the safety on and kept her finger off the trigger as she watched and listen to the mutants and people in the apartment. The scope zoomed in on each of the creatures as they waited in the apartment and mentally she went over the information that she had been provided.

The one with the orange mask was sitting sprawled out in a recliner and fidgeting every few moments. Michelangelo was a prankster and loud despite his excellence in stealth. In combat he had a habit of talking, wise cracking and generally distracting an opponent. His cheerful and bubbly nature was used to draw an adversary off guard before he would launch a very fast and powerful counterattack. He was the most athletic of the turtles and had master nunchakus, a weapon that was exceedingly hard to defend against with its blinding speed and could shatter bones when wielded with enough power and skill. She had no doubt that the fun loving turtle would be a dangerous adversary. _Give the fastest and hardest to hit turtle the fastest and hardest to block weapon. _

She moved the scope to Raphael who was pacing back and forth, grumbling and muttering to himself. He was the brawler of the family and easily the strongest. Her eyes briefly flickered to the sias he had tucked in his belt and she smiled amused. Saiswere primarily a defensive weapon with only the point of the central baton being sharpen for any form of lethal attack. According to what she had received about this turtle was he was the equivalent of a grizzly bear to fight but he would always leap to the aid of one of his brothers if they were knocked down, injured or in trouble. _The defender receives a defensive weapon that can quickly be flipped around for an all out assault and make use of his superior strength._

Artemis then moved the scope to the other end of the room where Donatello was keeping a close watch on Casey and trying to keep April from crying her eyes out. He was easily the smartest of the turtles and it was rumored that he spent much of his 'free time' building machines and inventing. Several of the turtles' key weapons and vehicles said to have been created by him from what he could salvage from the junkyard or dumpsters. He wielded a bo staff and unlike his brothers didn't carry two of his specialized weapons. He was also regarded as a pacifist by the Foot. He would rarely strike first but if he was attacked he excelled in defending himself and other members of his family with ease. He was regarded as a defensive expert by the Foot. _So the most non-aggressive turtle is given the most non-aggressive weapon designed only to defend himself if need be._

Finally the rifle came to rest on the turtle standing in the center of the room with his arms folded over his chest. Her eyes narrowed on Leonardo and her finger crept towards the trigger. Leonardo was a true practitioner to the ways of bushido and was the most skilled turtle in ninjitsu. He was easily the most dangerous of the turtles not only in his fighting prowess but also in his stealth abilities. According to the Foot had taken down several of their key warehouse facilities on his own leaving little more then a trail of decapitated bodies and damaged machinery in his wake. Like a true ninja, Leonardo carried a pair of katana but something about that piece of information didn't ring true to Artemis. Traditionally, ninjas carried a pair of ninjaken which were shorter then a katana but carried in a katana's sheath to make it harder to predict the speed of the draw for an opponent. _He is hard to predict and to defeat, a true ninja warrior to the core. _

The only one she didn't see was a Master Splinter who was thought to be the turtles sensei and sort of like an adoptive father. He was rarely seen with his sons –something he had a habit of calling them and something they were even swifter to respond to- except when they were in direct conflict with the Shredder, a crime lord that was rumored to be Oroku Saki. He commonly wielded his walking stick like a short bo staff and was also a gifted archer. _But how to lure him out of their base? I doubt he would come to the surface if I just ask. Maybe if a son or two is killed then he would attempt to aid the reminding sons to stop me. _

With that thought firmly in her mind she brought Sensei up and focused in on a clear shot to Leonardo's head. If she was going to take one of the turtles out it would be the most dangerous one and maybe if she was lucky she could get Raphael before he dove for cover. She wasn't to worried about the other two, their times would come soon enough. With the scope adjusted so that his head filled the scope and was in the center of the scope's cross-hairs, Artemis clicked off the safety and reached for the trigger.

Her finger was just about to press down on the trigger when Casey Jones suddenly moaned and April half yelled, "Casey!" The response from the turtles was instant as they all crowded around the man on the couch. Artemis was just barely able to stop her finger from firing towards a now clear scope. She even went so far as to jerk the barrel upwards so the bullet would lodge itself in the roof of the building rather then crashing through the window and alert the turtles to her presents. She moved her finger away from the trigger and adjust the scope back out to a wider rage before she began to reevaluated the shot.

"Casey what happened?!"

"Who got to you?"

"Are you okay? I was so worried…"

"When I get my hands on you, you little shit face, I'm gonna-"

"Guys, give him some room."

"Is the person who attacked you the same as who attacked Don and Raph?"

"Dude, he was out cold. How would he know that?"

"Dammit! Shut up! First I'm gunna pound him for not listening to me then you guys can play twenty questions with him! Now move!"

"ENOUGH!" Artemis winced as the microphone in her ear squeaked with protest at the sudden explosion of noise. The turtles had been shoving each other out of the way bombarding a half conscious Casey with questions. They were always moving and shifting making a clear shot impossible. Now though, thanks to Donatello losing his patience and yelling at them, they were all standing still and clumped together in front of the couch. "Take two steps back and give this man some air!" Obediently, the three brothers stepped back away from the couch as April and Donatello helped Casey to sit up.

She would take the sore ear drum any day when she realized that she could take both Raphael and Leonardo out at the same time. They were standing next to each other and with the power in her rifle not only would it go through one skull but it could pass into and end in the other. She thought of an old saying involving two birds and a stone as she adjusted the scope and moved her finger to the trigger to take the shot.

"You feel better?"

"Yeah," Casey's voice came shakily over the mike. "Loads. Thanks."

"Good now we have a few questions-"

Suddenly the scope was again empty and the questions were flying back and forth. Artemis let out a huff of a breath that blew some of her bangs upwards in exasperation. The turtles were definitely teenagers. There one minute and gone the next she though as she zoomed out again.

"Whoa, whoa! Hold it, Time out." Casey suddenly said over the din coming through the speakers and held his hands in the classic time out position. "One at a time guys, I was clocked with something heavy."

"Not really," Donatello said. Artemis had brought the sniper rifle back to a lock on the group as she waited for a clear shot. She had decided that if they would stand still long enough she would try to take out either Leonardo or Raphael. Preferable Leo. They were the two largest threats to her if they ever got into close quarter combat. "Judging by the bruising at the base of your neck, someone gave you a classic karate chop."

"Damn ditz must've sneaked up on me."

"Who?"

"Don't really know," Casey answered Mikey as he leaned forward slightly, placing his elbows on his knees and holding his chin as he thought. "I just saw her as she jumped up Fifth heading towards the business district." That meant he had only been following her for a few blocks. Artemis breathed a mental sigh of relief. There was no way they could piece together that she had been bugging April's apartment.

"Can you describe her?" Leonardo asked.

"Well, yeah. She was about April's height but broader in the shoulders and wearing a full length black coat. She had her hair pulled back in a braid and there was this thing strapped on her back."

There was a second of silence before Raph said, "That's it?"

"Dude. She knocked me out before I could see anything else."

"What was the thing strapped to her back?"

"Don't know Donnie. It's as black as her outfit. All I caught was the part next to her knee and over her shoulder." Donne gave him a pointed look and, as far as Artemis could tell, April elbowed him in the side. "Ow. The part next to her knee looked a lot like one of the ends on your bo, Donnie. The other was these two sticks connected on the ends with another stick."

"Really, Casey. That's all you got to give us?" Raphael asked in a deadpanned voice.

"What do you make of it, Don?" Leo asked his younger brother.

"I'm not sure. It doesn't sound like a camera or any form of surveillance equip-"

"I know what it is!" Michelangelo said suddenly cutting into the conversation. All eyes in the room –and one eye peering through a scope- looked to him as he dramatically cleared his voice and seemed to stand a little higher. " Lady, gentleman, gentleturtles and Raph. I, Michelangelo, have figured out a riddle faster then Donatello on this day of-" he turned around to peer at a calendar ignoring the impatience look on everyone's faces. "June seve-"

"Mikey, if you don't get to the point I'm going to shove you so deep into the freezer you won't be found until after the next ice age."

"Ummm…" the turtle regarded his angry red masked brother who was starting to crack his knuckles. "Right. It's a Taleonian laser rifle you can use after you hit level nineteen in Battle Galaxy."

"What?" Artemis whispered in denial, breaking the silence on the rooftop she was perched on. She had never broken he vow of silence when she was waiting for an opening to strike since she had begun her career over seven years ago. However the idiotic turtle's comment floored her. All she could think of was why he was comparing his life to a video game and more importantly why he was comparing her to one.

A loud smacking sound accompanied by Michelangelo's voice saying 'ow' and Raphael's voice saying 'bonehead' made her look back through the scope into the apartment. Judging by the glare Mikey was sending at the shell of his brother and rubbing at the back of his sore head, Raphael had just smacked him upside the head. Something that she was glad for because she had been sorely tempted to blow her cover just to make that turtle realize that this was not a joke.

"Mikey," Donatello said at length, clearly thinking about something as he spoke. "What kind of gun is that?"

"What from the game?" At Donatello's nod Mikey's voice perked up as if he was glad he was being useful. "It a laser gui-"

"Not that. I was wondering how far it could fire."

"I don't know. You use it in this one quest where you're shooting at a train and picking off the guards."

"How far are you from that? You don't have to give me a unit of distance, just tell me if you have to zoom in any."

"Yeah you do. And if you zoom in even more and get a clear head shot, you get bonus points!"

"What are you thinking, Donnie?" Leo asked as he watched his brother think.

"If it is what I think it is then I hope I'm wrong," Donatello said as he reached into a duffel bag that had been sitting on the floor next to the couch when Artemis had placed her bugs. If she had known that it had belonged to the turtle she would've bugged that as well. He pulled out what looked like a PDA and began scrolling through the various menus and information it began to display to him.

Artemis lined up one more time to take a shot at Leo and found him moving around out of her line of sight. As far as she could tell he was leaning over the back of the sofa to look at whatever was on the PDA in Donatello's hand. She shifted around slightly to see if she could get a clear shot only to freeze when she heard a 'huh?' from Raphael.

"What's wrong Raph?" April asked. Artemis didn't dare move. If the turtle had seen her move she could be in a lot of trouble very fast. She stayed still and held her breath, listening closely to the speaker in her ear trying to hear if she had been seen.

"Nothing," Raphael finally said and Artemis realized a shaky breath. That had been to close. She shifted back to her original position of leaning against the chimney and looked through the scope to the little clock she had down in the lower left hand corner. It was going on three in the morning meaning she was up way past her bedtime. She was also still being affected a little bit by jet lag causing her to be more fatigued then usual. She had only been in the city for less than seventy two hours and barely had a wink of sleep. If she didn't turn in quick she was going to make a mistake. A mistake that could cost her dearly.

"Damn…" Donatello's voice sounded through the ear bud and Artemis half heartily listened as she rubbed her eyes. She decided that she would head home and set up the recorder there. She reached into her belt to pull out the amplifier that could increase the broadcast range of the bugs. She looked around and chose a small nook in the chimney to place the small rectangle that could easily fit into the palm of her hand. While she activated it she listened idly to the conversation.

"What's wrong Donnie?"

"Are we going to be invaded by the Cadasician Space Slugs?"

Another smacking noise drifted through the speaker. "Zip it, Mikey."

Donatello seemed to ignore the two other turtles and his voice seemed more serious then it had been. "Leo, we're dealing with a sniper."

Artemis scoped Sensei back up and looked through the scope keeping her finger away from the trigger after she snapped in the safety. She focused in on the purple turtle who was looking over the back of the couch to, she assumed, Leonardo. Everyone else in the room also seemed to have quieted down and were waiting patiently for both Leonardo and Donatello to finish their staring contest. "How do you figure that, Donnie?" Leo's voice eventually broke the calmness.

"Well," the turtle stood and began to pace back and forth across the rug as his fingers moved over the screen. "The biggest clue we have to go on is the object that Casey described. Most sniper rifles are about two and a half to three feet in length. Judging by the shoulder rest that Casey described, it's a custom made gun. That means most of the information that I'm able to pull from the Internet isn't accurate. I don't know the ranges of this particular gun.

"Further more, it would explain our being able to sense danger but not actually see it. Snipers have a habit of 'digging themselves in' to particular spots and not moving for hours until they can get a clear shot. Judging by how we have felt the danger in several areas, she is probably moving around and has more then one 'nest', as snipers call them." Donatello paused in his pacing to address his family, "Snipers are experts at stealth and silence. We could walk less then three feet from her and not even know it."

"How do we go about stopping her?"

"Awww, come on Leo. Aint it obvious? We just need to find her and bap her one." There was a smacking noise as Raphael punched his fist, "A good one."

"Actually Raph, it's not going to be that easy." Donatello seemed to look exasperated with Raphael and Artemis wondered if the late night was catching up to him as well. "Most sniper rifles can hit a target over mile away. She would see you coming and be able to pick you off if you paused for longer then a few seconds."

"So who are we going to stop her?" asked Casey as he finally stood up from the couch. April stood with him and pulled down slightly on his arm.

"You're not going anywhere, mister." She managed to force him back down on the couch. "You have a concussion and you're not leaving until I say so."

"Oooo, you go Casey!" Mikey said pumping his fists in the air.

"The best way to stop her," Donatello was addressing Casey's question but was directing it at Leonardo instead. "Is figure out where she is sniping from then come in from her blind side."

Artemis frowned and reevaluated how dangerous Donatello was. He may not be the best fighter in the group but he was too smart for his own good. Even though Leonardo was the unofficial leader of the turtles, Donatello was the real mastermind. He was the one who provided all the answers to Leo who then would formulate a plan from them. Artemis clicked off the safety and adjusted her scope, lining up a direct shot at Donnie's head.

"And how would we do that?"

"Casey…"

"It's alright April don't bite his head off," Donatello said as he typed onto the PDA with a stylus breaking up the brief lovers quarrel about to start on the sofa. Artemis smiled as her finger moved over the trigger, he didn't expect a thing. "We're going to use the process of elimination. Raphael first sensed her on Tenth and I sensed her over at the bay side junkyard. Leo, where were you and Mikey when you sensed her?"

"I'll show you!" the orange clad turtle bounced over to his brother. "We were-"

Artemis pulled the trigger.

_I'm pretty sure there are a few spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in here but I found out today that I have a ten hour work day followed by a trainning session that will last about five (seriously fifteen hours of work, I'm going to die) so I decided to get this little tesear posted before work. I promise to have the next chapter up no later then Friday. Meanwhile, enjoy the cliffhanger. _

_MMWWWWHHHAAAAAAAA!_

_(Mikey looks at Donnie) What the shell did you do to this girl that makes her want to maim, kill, and mentally torture you?_


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…

Sharpshooter

Chapter Five

Artemis could count on her hand how many times she had sworn for an actual reason on one hand. Swearing came up a lot in relaxed conversation for her, especially when it was around other people in her age group. It had drifted over the years, becoming less of an inexcusable word to slag in most social circles. This time, however, she had a very good reason to swear, "Shit."

She had missed.

It wasn't that Donatello had suddenly moved like his brothers had before. It was because of an overly energetic orange masked torpedo had bounced across the room and half knocked over Donatello in its eagerness to be helpful. The result of the collision meant that the bullet whizzed past Donatello and sliced a shallow trail along the side of Michelangelo's head.

The room had dissolved into total chaos as the window shattered and rained glass down onto the carpet from the silent shot. April screamed as Michelangelo collapsed limply into Donatello's arms. Raphael yelled at Mikey and attempt to run across the room toward him only to be half tackled to the ground by Leonardo who didn't want to see another brother shot. Casey pulled April down the couch and cuddled her to his chest as he pressed back near the door to the apartment. Donatello, after having caught his brother, quickly back peddled three steps before his shell hit the wall and he sunk to the floor. His PDA lay forgotten on the floor next to him as his trembling hands checked over his baby brother for signs of life and then the extent of his injury.

Artemis growled in anger and swung Sensei up onto her back. It was time she got out of there. She slid on her suko spikes as she slunk along the roof and dropped down onto the next one over effectively out of the view of the apartment she had just fired into. As she jumped lightly to the next roof over and bolted towards her apartment, she continued to listen to the voices in the room.

"Mikey! Mikey! Dammit Donnie! Is he alright!?"

"Raph, calm down and stay down! She has these windows targeted!"

"It's okay, babe. It's going to be alright."

"Oh god… Mikey…"

"Mikey? Can you hear me?"

"Don! He's been shot! Of course he's not going to hear you!"

"April, honey, calm down."

"No! He's been killed Casey! Right here! In my apartment!"

"Dammit... When I get my hands on that little bit-"

"Mikey's going to live. He's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"The bullet just grazed the side of his head right near his temple. The sudden shock to the system knocked him out. He might have a headache when he wakes up but he should be fine."

"Good. Now let's see if I can play I spy with little Miss Trigger Happy."

"Raphael! Keep your head down!"

"I don't need ya to baby me, Leo!" There was a pause before Raphael said, "I don't see anyone."

"Snipers are trained to hide, man. I don't think she would just stand up and wave to you."

"Shove it, Casey"

"I doubt she's still in the area."

"What? Are you nuts? She's probably out there right now covering the windows waiting for us to stand up."

"Think about it, Casey. She missed. It's a safe bet she won't last long against one of us, let alone all of us, in a fight. She probably took off."

"And how much are you willing to bet on this, fearless?"

"Shut up, Raph. It was just a thought."

"So… now what?"

"We get out of the apartment. Head underground. If she is still following us we'll hear her in the sewers and her rifle would be useless down there. Casey and April, you're coming with us. She's seen both of you and she knew enough to canvas your apartment April. If she can't get us, she might try coming after you."

Artemis sighed in exasperation. She had really screwed up tonight. Not only had she misfired and failed to kill a target but her targets were heading underground with their two close human friends. She won't be able to take a hostage to lure them back out with now. Her mind went back over the files headings as she tried to figure out if they had another human accomplice she could use as bait.

"You need help with Mikey? He's heavy."

"He's starting to come around. Thanks anyways Raph. Come on Mikey, watch the glass."

"Imntheevee."

"What did he say?"

"Sounded like 'I'm not heavy' to me."

"April what are you doing?"

"Trying to get the bullet out of the floor," there was a faint cracking noise as the floorboards protested the bullet being pried out.

"Why'd ya want that?"

"I'm sure you've watched CSI before, Raph. Each type of gun leaves a pattern on a bullet fired from it, if this is a professional sniper a police agency or someone should have a file on her."

Artemis stopped dead in her tracks and called herself an idiot in several different languages. She was half tempted to go back and blow the whole building sky high. If the turtles' allies turned that over to the authorities then there would be half a dozen agencies swarming New York searching for her. However she doubted that she could make it back to the apartment before the turtles and their friends escaped. She pinched the bridge of her nose. Tonight really was beginning to suck.

"Good idea. Now let's go."

"Just let me grab my jacket…"

Artemis breathed a sigh of relief, at least the night wasn't going to be a total lost.

She continued on her way home listening to the turtles' heading for theirs. The turtles were very cautious, she would give them that in a heartbeat. Leo, Raph and Casey (much to the dismay of April) waited in the sewers to see if she would follow them while Don and April hustled a much more alert Michelangelo back to their 'Lair' as they called it. It was shortly after they had reached home that Artemis heard Master Splinter's voice. The only thing she could think of was a grandfather talking to his grandchildren as he asked Donatello what had happened and checked over Michelangelo himself.

After setting her receiver to record, she laid down and slept for a solid fifteen hours. She crawled out of bed at shortly after three in the afternoon and headed straight for the shower. With Thai cuisine on its way she sat down in her spacious living room and began the monumental task of cleaning her weaponry. She paid extra attention to the three guns she had fired to make sure nothing would interfere with her firing them in the future.

After the take out food was sitting quiet comfortably in her stomach and her guns cleaned and ready for another night, she headed for her workshop once more. Clicking play on the recorder she looked over the plans for her arm guards. The design was rather simple but she wanted them to be able to withstand several direct hits from a blade or block the piercing point of a sai. She sat down and took a pencil up in her hand. If she covered the curved plate of steel in several crisscrossed layers of Kevlar it would give her an added layer of protection and hopefully save her arms from some heavy bruising. She didn't think that the turtles would be kind enough to pull their punches.

As she sketched the recorder gave her an entire playback of the previous night in the turtles' lair. Shortly after Leo, Raph and Casey arrived home after crisscrossing half the city to make sure they weren't followed, everyone turned in after a minor dispute involving sleeping arrangements. Artemis fast forward that conversation -or yelling match depending on how it was looked at- as well as the nine hours of tape where everyone had slept and the following meal that Michelangelo had made despite his constant complaints about a headache.

There was a four hour intermission where Donatello and April worked on hacking into several agencies searching up information on her. During that time Artemis only got snippets of conversations which she assumed was because the jacket had been left somewhere and was no longer on April. Finally, the odd group seemed to converge somewhere nearby and were debriefed by Donatello about her.

"Artemis received her nickname from the NIS, Greece's National Intelligence Service, after her tenth kill in that country approximately seven years ago. She was easily separated from other snipers because she used a custom made gun that left a distinctiveve crescent moon like pattern on the side of her bullets. This pattern was eerily similar to the symbol of the Greek Goddess Artemis who was the goddess of the hunt.

Artemis' claim to fame that pushed her into the spotlight of 'Most Wanted', was what became known as the Bently Massacre. According to reports a maid at the Bently estate in England called in that someone had killed one of Mr. Bently's bodyguards at the kitchen door of the estate. It took the police less then forty minutes to reach the estate in which time all two hundred ten employees, bodyguards, family members and Bently himself that were at the mansion were found dead. A message written in fresh blood was discovered in Bently's office saying, 'Never try to cheat a goddess.'

It was later discovered that Bently had hired Artemis to kill off a competitor in an up coming election but decided that her price was to steep. When she went to collect the money that night in the mansion they had a series of traps lined up to kill her. Everyone was armed to the teeth and several cops said it looked like a war had gone on in the house hold. All the evidence pointed to the fact that Artemis had been injured in the office where she was meeting with Bently and then fought her way out of the mansion shooting anyone that got in her way. The phone call from the maid was actually a back up plan so that she would be caught by the police if they were unable to kill her.

After that Artemis' killing became slightly more… graphic in nature and disturbing. She kept up her sniping for the majority of her kills but she also picked up a habit of getting in close to her targets -usually through some form of romantic engagement- and then killing them in very bizarre and painful ways. She is believed to be a master of disguise because the only common trait between the 'ladies' that vanished shortly after their lovers' deaths were that they were all roughly the same age and built but everything from eye color to hair color and even ear shape was different."

"Geez, when you say it like that you make me sound like an insane homicidal manic," Artemis said with a smile as she abandon her sketches and headed for the back wall and her supplies where she began to pull out what she would need to start working on her project.

"What'd ya mean by graphic?"

Donatello heaved a heavy sigh. It was obvious that he didn't want to talk about her more gruesome kills. "Everything from point blank shots in the head to decapitations to disembowelment to something known as 'wired torture'. And before anyone asks, no I will not go into detail."

"What's wire torture?" Mikey's voice said in the following calm. It was followed closely by an annoyed sounding, "What?"

"I think that bullet affected yer hearing."

"Then how would that explain the last seventeen years?"

"Et tu, Leo?"

"Simply put," April's voice was quiet and Artemis found herself reaching for the volume control to hear her better. "Wire torture involves tying up the victim in barbed wire, preferably rusty, and forcing them to move around, prolong the torture. They eventually end up bleeding to death from their wounds or from an infection."

"Eww. Raph, next time Donnie says he won't talk about it, don't ask."

"Simply put," Donatello said ignoring Casey's comment. "We're dealing with a psychopathic killer."

"That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said about me," Artemis said happily as she began to sort through the pile of supplies on her work bench. The basic design was a form fitting elbow length glove that had two steel plates inserted between an outer layering of Kevlar and padding between it and her arm. The largest piece would cover the top of her arm and went about midway down the sides of the arm. There was a half inch gap before the second part of the plating covered the underside of her arm. The gap was going to be filled with extra Kevlar.

"So how exactly are we going to get to this psycho?"

"Like I said last night, process of elimination. We need to find out where she has her 'nests' and then set up a motion sensor so we know which nest she is in. Then it's just a matter of coming in from her blind side."

"So how do we find the nests? Walk around until one of us gets shot?"

"No. She has to have some form of surveillance equipment posted around the city so she could locate where we are at various times. All we have to do is find one of those pieces of equipment and I can rig a tracker that would follow it back to its source and to Artemis."

Artemis laughed at that. "If only you knew what was on you're friend's jacket!"

"Ummm… News flash, Don. How are we supposed to find this equipment? I mean, it's gotta be tiny or else we would have noticed it."

"We can start in April-"

"No, Don."

"But Leo-"

"I said no. As far as she knows that was where we were last at. She probably is watching that place like a hawk."

"So let's just go get her then!"

"No, Raph. There is no telling where she is it. We need to be able to find out where she is."

"Honestly Leo. I would need only two minutes. Not even."

"But Don you even said yourself that she would only need a few seconds to shot you."

"That's why you would stay out of sight Mikey."

"Enough!" Splinter's command had the whole room dead silent in an instant. Even Artemis paused in her work and looked at the recorder waiting for what was surely to come next. "Donatello, is there anyway you could build a device that would detect this equipment?"

"Yes, Sensei."

"Very well, create this technological device."

"But, Master Splinter, what-"

"Do not worry for your brothers, Leonardo. I have no interest in having any of you go topside." There was a flurry of voices as his sons tried to convince their Sensei otherwise but suddenly they just stopped. "After Donatello builds the device and instructs Angel in its use, I will accompany her to Miss O'Neil's home."

The flurry of voices started up again but Artemis ignored them as she quickly suited up. With the prototype arm guard completed she wanted to see how it felt with the rest of her outfit. The first thing she noticed was how heavy her right arm was to her left. She was going to have to lose some weight in the final design. She threw Sensei over her shoulder, time for a test run.

She turned off the recorder that still had the turtles arguing with their S and turned on the live feed. She stepped out onto her balcony and she readjusted the volume control on the headset so she could hear. By the sounds of it, April was wearing her jacket again and walking through a large mostly empty room that filled the speaker with echoes. "Donnie?" there wasn't really an answer, just a grunt. "I came to see how close you were to being done."

"Almost," it sounded like a soldering iron flare up for a second before it stopped. There was a long suffering sigh –Artemis figured that Donatello did that a lot- before he said in an exasperated voice "I'm done."

"I know you're not crazy about this idea Donnie. I'm not too happy about Casey going topside again either."

"I just don't understand what Master Splinter is thinking. She attacked Casey once before and what if she kidnaps Angel? Angel can't even fight back! She's barely fifteen!"

"I know. Just try to relax. Master Splinter will take care of her and I doubt Casey would let anyone within ten feet of Angel."

Artemis hopped off her balcony and dragged her suko spikes along the side of the building to slow her fall. When she had slid down fourteen stories she brought her legs up and pushed off of the building, executed a perfect back flip and landed on the roof of a shorter building next to her own. She crouched for a moment before continuing her run along the rooftops.

Meanwhile, Donatello and April continued their conversation unaware they were being listened into. "I just feel so useless… This isn't her fight April. We've worked so hard to make sure no one would know that Angel knew us and now we're just letting her walk out in the open for a sniper to pick off?"

"I wish I could do something too Donnie, but Artemis almost killed you and she hurt Mikey. She obviously knows about Casey and I. Angel and Master Splinter should be able to pull this off. And if things get bad Casey will be there to help."

"Actually," Artemis hopped to another building and rolled her eyes. She had only been listening to them for about a day and she already could tell by the sound of Donatello's voice when he had an idea. "I think you might be able to help."

"Donatello, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, then I'm going to say no."

"April please. Ten minutes. That's all I need."

"But Master Splinter said-"

"He told me he didn't want me to, not that I wasn't allowed to go."

Artemis stopped next to a staircase access way on a rooftop. She knelt down in the shadows so she was harder to see and placed a hand over her ear bud so she could hear better. She found herself holding her breath as she listen to the two on the other end.

"Donnie-"

"In ten minutes I can be back here, sitting right here in this very chair, and Splinter, Angel, and Casey won't have to go out there."

"But-"

"It will be easier and quieter for me to just sneak in there, sweep the room with this, grabbed the bugs if there are any, and then come back. I promise, April. Four minutes there, two minutes looking, and four minutes back."

There was silence filling the microphone and the air around Artemis as she held perfectly still, waiting for April's answer. As the seconds grew to a minute Artemis began to get antsy and she shifted around impatiently. Finally the answer came, "If you're not back in ten minutes, I will personally flay you alive."

"Thanks, April. You won't regret this."

"Yes, thanks April," Artemis said as she bolted from her knelt position. She headed immediately towards April's apartment at a dead sprint. "Unfortunately, you will regret this."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…

_(The scene opens with a full out brawl between the Turtles and company and their nemeses. Standing off to one side clutching her laptop to her chest is Sanru who watches in awe and fear. Noticing the camera she turns to it clearly mad.)_

_Since everyone decided to get into a grand old brawl in my apartment I've changed my mind. There is going to be character death in this fic. Several deaths if you include extras and bystanders who happen to get in the way._

_(A sofa suddenly smashes into the wall next to her. She looks at the pitiful remains of the furniture before glaring at the one who threw it)_

_Hun, you break it you buy it! (Turns back to the camera) This is also my first attempt to write a fight scene, let me know if it's any good or if I should never write an action/adventure fic again._

Sharpshooter

Chapter Six

Artemis was use to pushing herself to the limits each and every day but even she was feeling the burn by the time she reached April's apartment five minutes later. She didn't bother trying to sight the turtle with Sensei. Instead, she jumped across the road, pulling out the Valkyrie which clicked as its arms popped into place, and loaded it with a dart. She hit the window -covering the crossbow so that the small dart wouldn't be lost- and rolled over the floor surrounded by falling glass.

She was up and targeting on the startled "What?!" that had come from the kitchen. Before her eyes had even register that it was Donatello standing next to table, she was pulling the trigger of the Valkyrie which was tucked in close to her side. Then she tucked it back down into its holster and locking it in one swift movement hiding the whole operation with the shadows she cast and her coat.

The dart had already hit the unaware turtle and delivered its pay load into his blood stream before falling to the ground. She had designed her darts with a dissolving needle point. The hit felt like a bug bite or a light tap, the poison would be injected before the needle dissolved and the dart fell away leaving no trace on the skin. That was why Artemis loved the Valkyrie. It was silent, deadly, and impossible to detect until it was too late.

"You must be Artemis," Donatello said not realizing the danger he was in. His bo was out, tucked in close to his side and pointing at her. "Nice entrance."

"I strive to impress," she said with a careless shrug as she stood up. "So are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"Which is which?"

"The easy way is when you stand still and let me blow you're brains out and the hard way is when I beat you to death before any kind of help can arrive."

"How about I beat you and then turn you over to the authorities."

"Big talk for such a little turtle. I've heard you're good at combat." She threw her weight onto her left foot and swung her right foot around to point toward Donatello. Her hands came up to be held in loose fists that mimicked a boxer's stance during a fight. "Do you want to test that?"

She had been expecting for Donatello to do something but she hadn't expected for him to suddenly slam his staff onto the floor so that he could swing his legs up, catch the back of the chair next to him and fling it towards her. She quickly brought her bracer arm up and let the chair hit that first. She barely even felt the hit through the reinforced arm guard. She brought her arms down and was in the processes of opening her mouth to try something witty but instead she found herself doubling over and gasping as Donatello embedded his bo into her stomach.

A smirked crossed her face even as the terripin's foot came around in a round house kick to strike her in the head which twisted her around to the side. Donatello then dropped down and using the same momentum from the first kick, took out Artemis' legs. He then came up and before she could hit the ground the tip of his bo connecting with her stomach again flipping her over in mid air. She hit the ground with a thud and lay unmoving. For a moment Donnie stood at ready over her until he determined that she was unconscious. "I guess I aced that test," he said with a shrug as he reached into his belt for his shell cell. He couldn't wait to tell his mismatched family that he had the sniper situation all under wraps.

Before his shell cell could even flip open pain exploded in his leg and a powerful kick to his stomach sent him skidding backwards. A wall finally caught him before he fell over and he brought his bo up to block an incoming strike. "Sorry, cutie," Artemis said as she stood were she had been lying prone only moments before. She didn't even look tired let alone injured from the hits he had given her. "But I think you might have to take it over again."

"How are you even standing?" he asked confused. One hand traced down to his wounded leg as he felt how serious it was. The wound was deep and it hurt to put weight on his leg but the artery had been missed. The wound had not been designed to kill him. He gritted his teeth when he realized that the wound had been designed to slow him down and make it harder for him to move.

"And this is coming from a turtle? Think, Donatello, you're supposedly the smart one." She tapped her back twice with the thin blade she had pulled from her boot. "That's you're only clue."

"Armor?"

"Ding-ding. I guess you get a prize for that or something."

"How about I take you down," Donatello said as he brought his hand up from his leg and clutched at his bo again. He wouldn't have time to put any form of temporary bandage on. He didn't think Artemis would give him the luxury of that. "I'll be satisfied with that."

She brought her free right hand up and beckoned to him with a smile on her face that promised ill. Donatello ignored the warning and pushed himself off the wall, swing his staff as if it was a baseball bat and her head was a baseball. Instead of the home run like he had hoped for, Artemis threw up her right arm at the last moment. Instead of hitting flesh, his bo encountered steel and the wood snapped underneath the sudden torque from Donnie's hands and Artemis' arm. A good foot of wood snapped off and flew across the room to bounce off against the wall.

Donatello's arms were rattled when the bo slammed into the metal encasing Artemis' arm. He had been shocked -thinking for the moment about her possible being an utrom or having a cybernetic arm- and missing the fact that Artemis was spinning around for a perfect round house kick. When he did notice the kick it had already connected with his jaw sending his head spinning.

Artemis followed through the kick and connected again with the turtles head with her forearm. As the Kevlar and steel connected with his head, Artemis decided against changing the design. The arm guard was withstanding combat even better then she had originally hoped. She could live with the weight so she could keep such a versatile fighting tool. However, she decided that it would probably end up as a piece of specialty equipment rather then an everyday item.

The force of the second hit was enough to send Donatello off his feet and crashing into the table. The table was ill equipped to deal with weight from the turtle that came at such an angle that the side brace board broke with a dull snap. Don used the table to help him regain his footing only for the table to release an all mighty crack and suddenly collapse to the floor taking with it a very startled turtle.

Artemis walked towards the table watching Donatello closely as he fumbled around on the ground. Suddenly he moved with such speed and grace Artemis found herself falling back to avoid being hit by the remains of Donatello's bo and what appeared to be a table leg. He flipped both the wooden pole over his the back of his hands and then held them as if they were a pair of swords.

Even though he specialized in bojutsu, Donatello had learned how to use a large selection of weapons, especially his brothers weapons. He lacked the speed and finesse that both Raph and Mikey had. And had a hard time focusing on two of Leo's blade but with one katana he could easily defeat any of his brothers as if he was wielding his bo instead. He brought both 'swords' up hopping that his luck would hold out and he would be able to effectively wield the sticks against her.

Artemis watched Donatello bring up the two poles and then held them in a classic defensive position. Without taking her eyes off him, she pulled out her other dagger. Her eyes flickered off him for barely half a second as she looked to see what time it was. A frown covered her face as she noticed that the turtle still was completely coherent despite the length of time it had been. She flipped her wakizashi around so that they run down the length of her arm and she held the hilt so that it protruded from between her index and middle fingers. "All right, cutie. It high time we became serious."

Donatello barely had a second to brace himself for the sudden onslaught. Artemis was quick, relying more on her speed then the actual force of her hits. She was also deceptive. A strike coming in from the left was actually used to divert his attention from the leg coming in from the right. The ankle length coat also added to the problems. It was form fitting on her torso but the rest would fly about and hide the movements of her legs.

The fighting style was familiar but she was using the wrong kind of weapon for it. She moved the wakizashi back and forth like Raph would with his sais. She even used the hilt of the sword as Raphael used the knuckle of a sia. She would land a 'punch', drilling the blunt object deep into his side just like Raph did.

Despite the speeds and viciousness of her attack, Donatello was able to evade or block the majority of her strikes with his improvised weapons as they danced about the room. The room wasn't as lucky and part of Donatello felt sorry for the damage they were doing. He made a mental note to make it up to April somehow.

Suddenly as he was blocking a blade and side stepping a snap kick, his knees gave out and he suddenly found himself sitting on the ground. He began to tremble hard enough that he could no longer hold his weapons and they fell away with a clatter. His breathing became fast and shallow as fell back onto his shell. Despite the constant shivering, Donatello found he could move more then a few inches and even then it was exceedingly slow and jerky until he couldn't move at all. He felt fear building in his gut. He was paralyzed in a room with a killer contracted to kill him.

Artemis smiled as she watched the turtle slowly collapsed. She figured that the cold blooded body didn't react to drugs the same way a humans did which explains why it took longer for he turtle to collapse. She made a mental not that it would most likely take all her drugs extra time to spread through the turtles system. She doubted that she would have the time to concoct stronger versions of the drugs before she would have to face the remaining targets.

She walked over and looked down into the wide frightened eyes. Despite the turtle's obvious fear it looked ready for death. Artemis could tell by the set of his jaw that if she tried to interrogate it, nothing would be forth coming. An idea popped into her head as she traced the blade down his throat. "Don't worry." She smiled as she began to increase the pressure just enough to cause blood to well up from the side of his neck. "You won't feel a thing…"

* * *

Michelangelo was youngest of the turtles but -like his brothers- he had seen things that would have made grown men or turtles run screaming for their mommies. He had been scared breathless before and wanted nothing more then to run to Master Splinter and hide in his surrogate father's bed. Master Splinter had worked hard to train all of them on how to beat fear out and keep a level head no matter the situation.

However, no amount of training could have prepared him for April's confession.

She had come from the lab, silently crying and apologizing over and over. It took her several seconds after Casey asked what had happened for her to make any sense. When she told them what Don had done the remaining brothers had just looked at each other and bolted for the door.

Being the fastest, Michelangelo easily took the lead and slowly began widening the gap between himself and Leonardo. Behind Leo he could hear Raph and by the sounds of it both Casey and April. Even though he couldn't hear him he knew his father was there as well, running as silently as his sons. He kept reminding himself not to get far ahead of his family. If he ran into a trap and they were too far behind to help he would most likely end up dead as well.

He shook his head and told himself that Donnie wasn't dead, just hurt. Or maybe he was sidetracked by a useless piece of scrap that he had seen some use for at home. Any minute now, Mikey could see himself running around a corner right into Don who would be carting some random knick with him. Then he would apologize and be lecture by Leo and Splinter. Then in the middle of Mikey's bear hug, Raph would throw him out of the way and begin to pound on Don for scaring him half to death.

It was that flimsy hope that Michelangelo held onto tightly as he run. Deep in his subconscious mind he knew that Donnie wouldn't be around the next corner. Donatello was a creature of his word and if he said he would be back in that chair in ten minutes then he would have been there. The fact that he wasn't even in the lab ten minutes after he had left meant that something had happened to him.

Something bad.

As Michelangelo put on an extra burst of speed he could hear his eldest brother hiss at him to slow down. He knew that Leonardo was trying to protect him. There was no telling what could be in the apartment. The sniper could be standing in the kitchen waiting for the door to open so she could pull the trigger. Or Donnie could be rummaging around under the couch perfectly fine and healthy, looking for the bug that had eluded him. Donatello and the sniper could be in a fighting match over the rifle in the living room. Mikey might even get to be the hero by arriving in the nick of time and throwing himself on the sniper and saving Donatello's life

Or Donatello's body could be stretched out on the floor with a hole through his head.

Mikey tried not to think of that scenario.

It took what felt like hours but was really only two and a half minutes –his best time if he had noticed- before he was swiftly yet silently sneaking into April's basement. Using all his ninja training he advanced staying alert for the slightest sign that he wasn't alone. Even though he was silent and cautious, he still was fast. He was just stepping off the last step on the staircase before advancing on the door to April's apartment as Leonardo was just running out of the tunnel's entrance.

Mikey quietly catpawed up to the closed door. He had left his speed behind and erred onto the side of caution and silence. He placed his ear against the door and listened, holding his breath. He didn't hear or sense anything alive on the other side of the door. Even though he had planned on waiting there until Leo had arrived, fear caused him to open the door and step inside nunchakus out and whirling as he looked for a fight.

It barely took a glance around the room for his nunchakus to stop twirling and hang from his suddenly limp hands to swaying back and forth dejectedly.

The apartment was trashed. It was as if Raphael, three triceratons, Hun, and Casey had decided to wrestle in the tiny confines of the room. Michelangelo's eyes darted about lighting fast, taking in each and every detail of was once familiar room. In his mind a single sentence went though his head, _Donnie went down fighting._

He wished he hadn't thought that.

The kitchen table was broken in two, as if something heavier then it could support had been set on top of it. The chairs had been scattered about it on their sides or backs as if they had been tossed haphazardly about the room. A pile of wood turned out to be one of the chairs broken in half as if it had been thrown against a wall but it set alone on the floor near the windows.

It was then he noticed that another window had been broken in. He saw the glass covering the floor and the slightly darker glass from the television that had been knocked off its stand and had smashed on the rug. The bookcase next to the television stand had also been knocked over strewing its contents all over the floor.

The couch had been slashed by some form of sword as had the recliner that lay on its back. Instead of one slash the old chair supported two that were about two inches apart. For a moment fear caught at Michelangelo. Had the Shredder caught his brother alone and unaware? He doubted that Donnie would have been attacked by the Shredder and not called to warn them.

That was when he saw the shell cell laying on the floor.

Leonardo was suddenly next to him, swords drawn and ready, but falling slightly as he took in the disaster area. Unlike Mikey, he began to notice a few finer details, like the blood that was scattered over various objects and the floor. He also noticed that it looked like there was an indentation in the wall about eye level to him on the far end of the sofa. Before he could take a step to investigate the dent, Raphael shoved past him and Michelangelo causing Mikey to fall to his knees and drop his nunchakus next to him.

Raphael looked over the damage with mild interest. His focus was on his brother not on what the room looked like. Sais drawn and stalking forward like a tiger, Raphael marched over to April's closed bedroom down and kicked it down. He stood waiting to see if anyone would come out before heading inside to search for his brother.

Casey, April and Splinter enter the apartment at about the same time. Casey was able to get out a soft 'wow' before he was catching at his girlfriend who had almost fallen to the floor. A strong sense of guilt ate at April's heart. She didn't care about the damage done all she cared about was Donnie and the fact that she had let him go alone. Self doubt ate at her as Casey kept her standing and allowed her to cry into his shoulder.

Master Splinter had stepped into the room at full alert. It was obvious a battle had been fought there and a violent one at that. He stepped over next to Michelangelo sniffing the air to make sure that they were truly alone and the sniper was not waiting to strike. Sensing no threat he placed a paw on his youngest sons shoulder as his nose twitch furiously.

Gulping noisily, Mikey gestured to the chair and then to the shell cell. "The Shredder attacked him."

Master Splinter saw Leonardo stiffen out of the corner of his eyes. Raphael paused on his way towards the bathroom and looked at his brother with wide eyes. "No, my son," Splinter said gently as his nose continued to send him mixed signals about what had happened in the room. "I can sense many things in this room but the Shredder is not one of them."

"Are you sure, Master?"

The aged rat nodded to his eldest son. A growl erupted from Raphael throat and he half flew to the bathroom door which he kicked in and entered with out pause. "Donnie?" his voice was hopeful and painful as it echoed eerily from the bathroom. Finding the room empty he then ran out the door and jumped down the staircase to the shop below. "DONNIE?!"

Michelangelo forced himself to his feet and shuffled over to the phone. Without his shell cell, there was no way for Donatello to call them or for them to use the tracer that had been built into it. He picked the phone up gently as if it was his brother instead. As he stood he saw something that made his breath squeak out of a suddenly tight airway.

"What's wrong Mikey?" Casey asked. April was still in his arms but rubbing furiously at her cheeks. Self loathing wouldn't find Don. She needed to focus so she could find her lost friend better. She gently pulled herself free from Casey's grasp and walked on shaky legs into her home, looking for a clue that would help her discern what had happened that night.

"Don's bo…" Mikey whispered as he picked up about fourteen inches of bo staff that laid huddled against the wall. He looked around and saw the remainder of the weapon lying near the fallen bookcase which he hurried to and pick up. "It broke…" he held the two pieces together as if he could fix it right then and there with nothing but his eyes which stared sadly at the object.

"DONATELLO!" an enraged voice bellowed from downstairs. Before anyone could lift a finger, Raphael bolted up the staircase two at a time stalking towards the window growling under his breath. He started to climb out the window but was stopped by a paw on his shoulder. He looked to his Master and Father doing what he could to prevent himself from bolting out the window anyways to search for his missing sibling one block at a time.

"I know you are angry my son and wish to find your brother but we must be prepared for a fight." Splinter gestured at the remains of the once beautiful apartment, "Judging from the room, a great battle was fought and the better warrior won." He sighed, worried for his son. Donatello was smart but his fighting prowess needed work especially offensively. "You're brother is highly skilled," he pointed to the remaining pieces of the bo staff. "But hers were obviously much greater."

"Yeah, by a lot," Raphael looked like he was going to pound Leonardo for calling his brother weak but the dark look on his brother's face stopped him. The last time he had seen Leo's face scrunched up like that was when he had been battling his inner demons and doubts. Leo jerked a thumb behind him to the dent in the wall. "That's where Don's shell hit the wall and by the looks of it, he hit the wall when he was horizontal to the floor."

Master Splinter frowned and walked toward the wall in question. "The scents in the air tell me that it was your brother versus a young woman. You're brother was injured several times during the fight." Master Splinter knelt and stood with a small object in his hand, "And he was drugged with a dart." Master Splinter sniffed the air again, "And your brother was afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Mikey asked to try to fill the depressing silence had blanketed the room.

"I do not know, my son," the rat said sadly.

"Wait," Casey's excited voice cut through the room like a shock wave. "Can't you just track down his scent Master Splinter?"

However, as the rat shock his head the vigilante's shoulders drooped. He had been so sure he had figured it out. "The scents of the city could mask his scent. We must also take into consideration that she may have had a vehicle of some form. The smells of the exhaust and the rubber hides one's scent almost as well as water."

"It's going to rain tomorrow," Aprils voice said quietly from where she was standing next to the toppled bookcase slowly flipping over the shards of a glass figurine she had had sitting on the top shelf.

Mikey had walked into the kitchen when he saw a message painted on the refrigerator door in red paint. The paint was still fresh and leaving little trails in various places where it was on to thick. He couldn't help but admire the smoothness and sweeping forms of the lines. It was obvious that this person had had some form of calligraphy experience. When he actually read the note his blood turned a hundred notches lower. "Uhhh… guys? She left u-us a note…"

Suddenly his family and friends were swarmed around him their eyes trailing over the red painted note. A feral growl built in Raphael's throat and Leonardo found his hand gripping the hothead's shoulder in case he tried to run out to hunt recklessly and be injured or worst himself. "Why would she carry paint with her?" Casey asked as he reread the note again.

"That's not paint, Case," April whispered sadly. The tears she drove off came back and began to trace patterns down her cheeks. "Donnie and I agreed that it would be better if you didn't know some of the nastier details Artemis is known for. She would paint sayings and words at some of the murders scenes." She reached out and gently touched the cold substance that was sticking to her fridge, "She painted out her notes in the blood of her victims." She held the red substance to her nose and sniffed confirming the suspicion that had been building in her head. "It's blood."

_I've always wanted a pet turtle._

Raphael tore himself away from Leo's grip after he reread the note and yelled out the windows of the apartment, "I'll rip out your intestines and choke you with the until you tell me where he is! Do you hear me?! That's a promise!

* * *

Walking across a rooftop less then a mile from her temporary home, Artemis smiled. April had been a little too close to Raphael but it was a minor annoyance. Her plan was working. Raphael's anger would be dictating his actions now and not his rational thought. He would barrel into a situation rather then think it through first and that would be his downfall.

However, she was sure that the note would just make Leonardo twice as dangerous.

She smiled anyways. She still had one trick up her sleeve that was sure to send the remaining three turtles into a rage driven attack. This crazy plan was actually starting to come together. In the next forty eight hours her targets would be gone and she would be able to leave New York. Greece was much more beautiful at this time of year anyway.

"Yes, this is a glorious night," she said out loud as she staggered slightly under her load. "Wouldn't you say cutie?"

The purple banded turtle known as Donatello was draped over her shoulders only partially conscious from the drugs coursing through his system. Both the cut on his thigh and the fresh one on his collar bone that she had used as her ink well were tightly wrapped. She had given him aid not out of kindness but only to help hide her trail from the turtles if they tried to track her down. That and she was going to need him alive.

For now.


	7. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…_

_(Sanru looks around the strangely empty apartment) Ummm… I guess I should thank _54Viruses _for the tip on how to break up character fights but now…(Looks around again) now its really quiet… and kinda scary…_

_(Mikey sneaks up behind her) BOO!_

_She squeaks and faints._

_Raph: Good job Mikey! (heads toward laptop) Now let's find out where Don is…_

_(Sanru bolts upright as if she hadn't faint) Touch that computer and you'll be sorry!_

_Raph: How?_

_Mikey: Dude, don't say that. She the author of a fic that has __**character death**__ in it!_

_Raph looks at Sanru who is smiling innocently back: Right._

Sharpshooter

Chapter Seven

"Yes it was a pleasure to do business with you," after shaking the man's hand he turned on her stiletto heels and walked away from the new pier and warehouses she had just bought herself. She was well aware that many of the workers in the area were ogling her body as she paraded over the pavement to the limousine awaiting her. She honestly wouldn't blame them. That was the entire point in owning this slightly to revealing short skirt business suit. Men would do anything for a 'hot chick' especially if they showed off the proper –or improper- amount cleavage and had a nice tight butt. The catcalls in the background only proved her point even more.

The hired driver held the door open for her to climb in. She did so a little slower the necessary, enjoying the thrill that crept up her spine as she felt their eyes on her. She was a little disappointed when the driver closed the door and headed for the driver seat but as his voice asked her where she wanted to go she began to think of her plan and a thrill traced up her spine for a completely different reason.

"Back to the Hinkely, please."

The plan was simple and yet complex. It had popped into her head as she had knelt next the turtle about to slit his throat. She had debated disemboweling him but for giving her such a good work out she was going to show him a trace of mercy and make his death a quick one. Then just before he could push the blade through, she had decided on another course of action, one that would make it easier to get to the other turtles and their Master.

Slicing a deep cut into his shoulder and used the blood to write a brief taunt to the other brothers who she knew would soon be on their way. She bound his injuries tightly to prevent any seepage. Just as she was forcing him to sit up she heard April through the earpiece stumble into the main room and explain to the turtles what had happened.

Swearing softly she was able to get the turtle semi standing and then up and over her shoulders. The extra one hundred and eighty pounds on her shoulders caused her to over balance and she stumbled backwards across the room. The wall finally stopped her backward momentum and she actually thanked the turtle for being so gentlemanly as to cushion her impact. She doubted that he heard her. The force of the hit on his already weakened system most likely knocked him out.

Then the daunting task of getting away from the apartment came up. Donatello was almost too heavy for her to carry and in there would be no way for him to walk. She doubted that he would go with her even if her gun was buried in the back of his skull. She could walk but there was no way she would be able to run and she didn't even want to think about jumping from rooftop to rooftop. She groaned when she realized that she was going to have to climb with him on her shoulders up at most twenty three floors to her apartment.

She almost dropped him and killed him right there.

However, her mind was made up that the turtle was coming with her so she determinedly marched forward. She climbed out a window and nearly fell over the rail and into the alley below. A chuckle escaped her as she went up the steps. She could just see the headlines, _World Renown Assassin Dies in Fall_. She would be a laughing stock for years to come after her death.

Once she had finally gained the roof she stood there a moment panting. She was taking to long in getting away. If she didn't pick up the pace then she would be caught with her prize before the rest of her plan could be put into motion. It seemed luck shined down on her then. At that moment a semi rolled onto the otherwise silent street.

Artemis was able to pick up enough speed to get her and the turtle to make the jump but the landing was less then graceful. Artemis landed lightly enough and fell to one knee then both knees as she tried not to fall forward. Donatello's weight had shifted up higher onto her shoulders over balancing her and she now found herself with a battle with gravity. A battle that gravity won.

She fell face first onto the semi's truck with the turtle sprawled across her shoulders and back. Artemis then found herself unable to get herself free because –thought he was unconscious- his superior weight easily had her pinned down. It took her close to seven minutes to wiggle herself free from the cumbersome weight and when she was clear she flopped back dramatically next to her prisoner. "You need to go on a diet," she gasped as she laid there.

When the semi finally rolled to a stop for a red light near her apartment, Artemis forced herself up and to jump to a nearby roof where she almost fell over again. Of course, she could have gotten off the semi sooner and closer to her home but she had still been fighting to get the turtle back up on her shoulders.

As she walked across the rooftops, she listened as the brothers saw her note and Raphael reaction to it. Happily she declared, "Yes, this is a glorious night. Wouldn't you say cutie?" She wasn't surprised when the turtle didn't respond.

When she reached her building she simply slipped in through a backdoor and headed for the maintenance elevator. She had long ago rigged the entire security system in the building so she could come and go as she pleased when she was hunting. All it took was a phone call to her apartment's phone followed by a four digit number that started a program that ran through her phone line into the building security system. Then as long as she kept the phone line open the security system would automatically 'fine' and 'normal' where ever she went in the building.

Of course the elevator didn't reach all the way to her penthouse which took up the entire top floor of the building so she found herself faced with four flights of fire stairs that she would have to climb up with a giant turtle across her shoulders. As she went up the stairs, wincing as her legs complained with every step, she kept reminding herself about the plan and that 'feeling the burn' was actually a good thing.

The second she was in her apartment she dropped the turtle unceremoniously in the middle the foyer. Grumbling under her breath, she stretched her back until she heard several pops and creaks which helped to relive the dull ache. She then grabbed the turtle's wrist and dragged him across the floor and into her bedroom.

Despite her wanting a hot shower she knew that the turtle needed to be secured. With the sedative taking so long to take effect it was possible that the turtle's anatomy reacted differently then a human's. He could wake up at any moment or possible fall comatose for several days.

The limo's engine cutting brought her back to reality as the door next to her was open. She thanked the driver and walked into the building heading for her apartment. As she rode up the elevator she began to make a checklist of everything she needed to do in the next few hours. She needed to finish the next arm guard and she had to set up a surprise in the warehouse.

That and an unexpected glitch had come up in her information.

That morning when she was listening to the recording of the previous night she learned that the turtles had called in the aid of two more allies that she had next to no information on. Since Donatello had been taken, Leonardo decided to call in two other allies to help them capture her and find Don. Professor Honeycutt had a file that was one sheet of information that said he was an android with a personality and was an inventor. However, this 'Leatherhead' was never even mention in any of the files and that was something that was brothering her a great deal.

She stepped into her penthouse and locked the door behind her. She then pulled off the heels and took a moment to rub her aching feet. The stilettos added a great deal to her 'sexy' business suit but it all but killed her feet. A sudden thump caused her to jerk and look up with narrowed eyes. Another thump made her smile and shake her head.

Her 'guest' was awake.

Scooping up her shoes in one hand she sauntered across the room listening to the various grunts and occasional thumps from her bedroom. When she reached the doorway she just stood there watching him thrash and admiring her handiwork. Hopefully all this extra hassle would be worth it in the end, she thought with a sigh.

Donatello lay on his shell spread out as far as his legs and arms could go. A relatively thin cord was wrapped around his ankle and entwining his hands. A single loop of cord was around each thumb so that the turtle would dislocate his thumbs if he was able to wiggle one free. The cord then went from each sets of wraps to under the bed where they were secured together with a trucks hitch. A knot that the more you pulled on it the tighter the knot became. Donatello might have realized how well secured he was if he didn't have a blindfold wrapped tightly over his eyes.

Unaware of his current situation or his audience, Donatello continued to struggle against his bonds. He could barely move an inch in any direction but he continued to strain against the ropes as best as he could. Occasionally he would jerk his whole body suddenly and cause the headboard to lightly bounce against the wall. His hands were almost a blur of movement as his fingers tried to locate a knot or wiggle free of the ropes.

Finally Artemis spoke up, "Keep that up and you'll dislocate your thumbs."

Donatello's reaction was instant. He wet completely still and his panting breaths were suddenly silent as he listened for his captor. If Artemis hadn't seen him struggling seconds earlier she would have thought he was still asleep. As she watched him take a slow very shallow breath, she noticed that his muscles were still faintly quaking from the drug. She made a mental note on the duration the drug had been in his system.

An impish smile suddenly spread across her face. Silently as possible she walked across the carpet to the other side of the bed. Pausing at the side until Don took another shallow breath she suddenly jumped into the air. "BOO!" she screamed when she hit the mattress causing her captive to let out a startled cry as he suddenly bounced on the mattress. Laughing at Donatello and pointed her finger at him like a two year old, Artemis fell back on the mattress. "I can't believe you fell for that," she managed as she pounded the mattress twice with her fist.

Donatello's heart felt like it was going to pound right out of his chest. He panted for breath as he struggled to calm down. Hearing her laughter and the following response he managed out a shaky, "What?"

Still chuckling to herself, Artemis rolled off the bed and went over to a small mini fridge that was kept in the room. Pulling out a bottle of water and the walking back toward the bed she said, "I bet use could use a few sips of water. I know that the drug I slipped you has given you dry mouth."

A scowl formed on Donatello's face and he tightened his jaws.

"I figured you'd say that," she said as she set the bottle of water on a small bedside table. She then walked into the closet to get out of the business suit she had put on earlier so she could buy the warehouse. Sliding into the Lycra body suit she went back into the bedroom to find Donatello wiggling his wrist around. She sighed and then walked over to him. She watched him for a moment longer before slamming her elbow down as hard as she could into his stomach.

She watched him gasp for breath for a moment before she said, "I told you to stop that. I catch you doing it again and I'll cut off both your arms." She picked up the bottle of water again, "Now about that water..."

"Go to Hell." Donatello gasped.

"Now that's not a very nice thing to say. What? You think I poisoned it or something?" Donatello's face stayed neutral and he didn't say anything. "Do you really think I would drag you almost to the other end of town just to poison you?" She shook her head and put the water back before heading towards the other side of the room. "And here I thought you were supposed to be the smart one."

"If you're not going to kill me then way am I here? Don't you have a contract out on us, Artemis?"

She shrugged, "Yes but I needed away to get to both your brothers and your Master out into the open and what better way to do that then kidnap someone. Live bait is so much better to use especially when you're hunting its brothers."

"They won't just walk out into the open for you to pick off."

"Yes I know that. Unfortunately, I have to go up against them in hand to hand combat. They are preparing themselves for dealing with a sniper so I need to throw them off balance." She smiled at him, not that he could see it, and said, "Another reason why you're still alive. I need… leverage to help me gain the upper hand."

"So you're going to hold a knife to my throat and threaten to kill me if they don't commit seppuku?"

"Nah, to obvious. I had an even better plan in mind. Would you care to hear it?" She turned away from the prone turtle and reached into a flower vase on a small shelf pulling out a beautifully crafted throwing knife. She began to flip it over in her hand. "It goes like this. I get the turtles to come for you and then imply that I had some… liberties with you. Since you were already kind enough to tell them of my sexual habits they believe that I actually did rape you and then what do you think will happen?"

"They'll rip you apart," came the growl from the bed as well as a now familiar rustling sound.

"Exactly, the need to take back your honor would make them fight sloppy and then I'll-" she suddenly spun back towards the bed and threw the knife. "Strike!"

Donatello hissed as the blade enter his arm with surgical like precision. He could tell it had hit right in the center of the brachioradialis muscle group. About 20 muscles that cause most wrist, hand, and finger movements in his forearm. Experimentally he flicked a finger and gasped when that small movement made the blade move in his arm, tearing deeper into the flesh.

"I told you to stop trying to wiggle free. Hopefully that will give you enough reason to do as I say." She walked back over to the bedside and pulled a roll of gauze out of the drawer and wrapped it about the injury. She left the knife and made sure the wrapping was lose enough so that the blade could still wiggle back and forth if the turtle moved his hand, fingers, or wrist.

With that done she perched on the edge of the bed, "So what can you tell me about Leatherhead?"

Donatello's brow furled but he refused to say anything.

"Your brother called them earlier today to help them locate you."

"How do you know that?"

"If you had turned on that little bug detector gizmo-" she gestured towards her workshop where the device sat on her work bench. "Brilliant idea by the way- you would have discovered the bug I put on April's jacket."

"Shit," Donatello mumbled as he thought of everything he and his brothers had discussed since April had joined them. Artemis no doubt heard his idea on how to catch her off guard which explained her tactics.

"Don't worry," she said patting his shoulder sympathetically. "Hindsight is twenty-twenty after all. Now who is this Leatherhead?"

"Didn't I tell you to go to Hell earlier?"

"Cheeky little bastard aren't you," she stood up heading into her armory. She pulled a metal box off of one of the shelves and the returned to the bedroom. Setting it on the table she pulled out a syringe. "I guess you do have one other use for me." She jabbed the needle into his other arm and injected the contents into his bloodstream.

"What was that?" he demanded.

"Now that would spoil the surprise wouldn't it?"

Donatello opened his mouth to say something but all that came out was a choked scream. His blood suddenly felt like it was liquid fire and his muscles began trembling so violently he guess it looked like he was having a seizer. His stomach rolled and he could barely taste bile in the back of his mouth. His last conscious thought was that these were what he felt like when he had collapsed back in April's apartment but the feeling was so much more intense.

Artemis watched as one last convulsion shook the turtle before he went limp on the bed. She placed her fingers over his carotid artery and felt the slow but strong pulse. A quick glance at the clock told her that this version of the drug could knock out one of the turtle in less then thirty seconds. "Much better," she said out loud. She petted the turtle on the head. "Good boy." Then she turned and headed back into her workshop.

She had another scouting trip to get ready for.


	8. Chapter 8

_Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…_

_I'm kinda bumming because I was just informed I'm being transferred at work. It means I'm going to be in a new office on the other side of town so I have to drive and pay for gas. Joy._

_Leonardo: Do you think it has anything to do with you typing during work?_

_...shut up..._

Sharpshooter

Chapter Eight

Artemis closed the window to the warehouse silently behind her. Now that she had completed that little task she had one last thing to do that night and that was to learn more about the mysterious Leatherhead. As she had been setting up her little 'surprise' she had been listening on the turtles. The android had decided that the best way to track her down would be by installing a heat sensor on something called the 'Battleshell' and then directing it to do a sweep of the rooftops to which Leatherhead concurred.

The plan was pretty sound especially since the turtles were cold blooded. If they were up on the roofs then the sensor would by past them. Unfortunately for her it would pick her out in a heartbeat. She had learned several important things from the resulting conversation. Leatherhead was a scientist who shared a home with Honeycutt and if that was the case she was willing to bet that they would be very similar. He too was most likely a noncombatant and only a threat in terms of knowledge.

Raphael had decided to go 'talk' to some of the local punks and find out anything he could about his missing brother's whereabouts. Leonardo had been against that but judging by he had yelled at Raphael to 'get back here', Raph had already made up his mind. Splinter had then instructed that Leo was to go after Raph and Mikey was to help the professor and Leatherhead up in the garage. Even though they never came out and said where the garage was, Artemis was able to gleam enough off the conversation to know that it was somewhere on the East side of town and in an abandon warehouse.

It wasn't much but it was a start.

For about four hours she investigated about every warehouse on the East side both in used and abandoned ones. She was glad she had started her little task in her new warehouse when it was still daylight out otherwise she would've been up all night looking for the turtles' garage. As it was, she didn't find any warehouse/garage that looked like it was inhabited by mutants until a little before one and even then she had almost past it by.

The only reason why she had given the warehouse on Eastman and Laird a second look was because it looked like someone had been trying to make it look as if it was abandon. The random piles of junk were didn't seem to be to random as originally thought but actually in a simple pattern with one pile against the fence and the next against the wall of the building. There were a few piles that were about midway between the fence and building but even they followed the same pattern.

Another give away was the building itself. Even though someone had taken care to keep it in disrepair there were three key factors that made it worthy enough for a closer inspection. What really made it stand out was a fact that none of the windows had been broken in. There were a few cracked windows but none of them had been shattered in which was a rarity in New York. The door looked weathered and old but it wasn't dented and could close all the way, something all the other abandon warehouses had in common.

That and she had never seen a security system on an abandon warehouse before.

Everything from motion to heat sensors were cleverly concealed about the perimeter. There were also several cameras hidden in the 'random' junk piles. She knew that if she tripped even so much as one alarm she was dead. Leo and Raph weren't there, but if she set off the system she knew they would be there in seconds. She wouldn't be able to convince them of her little white lie about their brother unless he was there and between Raphael's strength and Leonardo's determination she would be truly and utterly 'boned'.

Sneaking past the security system became a hassle in its self mostly because no matter how many times she tried to approach the building she found another security measure blocking her way. Even if she was able to get over the fence she would find herself facing a crisscross network of heat and motion sensors that covered the grounds. The only place that didn't seem to have any sort of defensive measures was the roof of the building.

This of course required some thought. She obviously could walk over the ground to the wall and then climb up onto the roof with the sensors. She couldn't jump off any nearby buildings because of their height compared to the warehouse. She could break both her legs and her pelvis jumping from that height and she would have to jump a distance of a four lane highway. The only way she had jumped a distance like that before was sliding down a building and then jumping like she did when she left her penthouse every night but that brought about its own sets of risks.

The rate of descent was going to have to be minimal. Fourteen stories was about as far down as she could possible slide before her speed would pick up to the point where she wouldn't be able to stop it. Since the closest building to the warehouse was brick it meant her descent was going to be difficult because the suko spikes would jump every time they went from brick to mortar and back to brick. Also she was going to have to take into account the roof of the warehouse. If it was in any form of disrepair she could possible go through it. However, it was also a good bet that since the turtles kept such good repair of the doors and windows of the building that the roof was in just as good shape as well.

Even with the difficulties it presented, Artemis knew that this was her best bet to gain entrance to the warehouse. With a resign sigh she scaled the side of the apartment building asking herself was she really willing to die over a small detail such as learning more about this Leatherhead. As she stood on the roof staring down at the distance she was going to have to jump she reminded herself that her secret to success was the information she gathered before the kill. She took an extra moment to calculate the distance she would have to launch herself away from the structure to reach the warehouse and at what floor she should take the plunge. With the angles, velocity and gravity all taken into account, Artemis took a breath and hopped off the edge of the building.

Just like she thought the suko spikes had a hard time grabbing at the brick work. Every time she went over the mortar between the bricks the suko spikes would give a little jerk but not half as bad as she thought they were going to. Only once did her right hand come off the wall and she had to half throw her body against the wall to prevent the other set of spikes from letting go too. When she reached the appropriate floor she gathered her legs under herself and pushed off.

She flipped over a total of two times before she landed hard on the roof. There was a dull thunk when she did and she froze, listening closely to see if she had alerted anyone to her presence. After a moment of silence, Artemis stood up and began to walk away from the scene. Only after all her weight was centered on one foot did the roof give way and she fell through.

Artemis barely was able to let out a gasp of surprise as the rotting roofing gave way and she found herself in free fall. The fall only lasted a few moments before the canopy of noise began again. Only this time it came from the crates and boxes she knocked aside as she fell. She landed in a heap of cardboard, wood and various mechanical contraptions and components, half of which she didn't recognize.

"What was that?"

"It seems that part of the roof's infrastructure gave way."

"You two stay here. I'll see what's up."

Artemis laid still as she listened to the brief conversation. She recognized the voices almost instantly especially the last one. It seemed she had found the right warehouse after all. She stayed still as Michelangelo's footsteps came closer. Several planks from one of the shattered crates were covering enough of her that she didn't think Michelangelo would recognize the danger. Then she could surprise him long enough for her to get a grip on one of her guns. If she tried to to so much and even move at that point Michelangelo would easily see her. It was time to be patience and wait.

Sure enough a few moments later she heard movement from nearby and then press on some of the boards laying on her. Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip as Michelangelo walked right over her and she silently yelled at him to go on a diet. She waited until he had walked back over her and got off the pile of the debris. "I don't see anything," the turtle called across the room.

Artemis chose that moment to bring her legs up and snap them downwards, springing herself up from under the debris. The turtle was in mid-turn to see what had just exploded from under the debris. Knowing that he was the fastest and most athletic turtle Artemis was willing to bet he could easily get to her or get away from her before she pulled her gun. She quickly jumped forward before the turtle could react to her presence and landed on the turtle's chest as he turned all the way around to face her. The force of the impact knocked him to the ground, his head bounced off the floor with a crack and Artemis found herself straddling him.

Realizing that she had Mikey's arms pinned to his side she squeezed her legs together holding him more securely. She pulled out blade out of her boot intent on the quick and easy kill but before she could slit his throat with it or so much as get it a few inches from him a roar shook the room. Heavy foot steps and a growling noise came from behind Artemis. She looked over her shoulder but was only able to discern a large brownish green blur before something hit her with the force of a small truck.

Artemis had been hit before but never by something with such force and she was very glad that she had so many layers of defenses built into her outfit. If she didn't have them she knew that there would be a series of broken ribs possible even vertebrae and a plethora of bruises across her lumbar. She flew through the air like a rag doll before hitting the ground and somehow tucking herself up into a roll and back onto her feet. She turned to face her adversary which was letting loose another roar. A T-Bird Five was pulled from one of her side holsters and then she took a moment to look over the monstrosity before her.

Whatever it was it was large, about six or seven feet tall. It was obviously another mutant like the turtles but from a different species. It appeared to be a crocodile or maybe and alligator -she never tell them apart- and differently not happy. Even as she stood there watching it, it pounded the ground several times with its tail, tossed its head back and forth making this odd growling sounds, and clenching its fists. "What the hell?" she said as the creature gave one last bellow of rage and charged.

Despite its bulk the creature was very fast, covering the distance separating them in mere seconds. It could have had to do with the fact that Artemis was still stunned speechless by the creature before her but she suddenly found herself dodging a fist the size of a large ham. Even as it swung at her again, Artemis didn't attempt to block the hit. If it was strong enough to slap her almost halfway across the warehouse, then one of those punches could easily break something.

The creature also seemed to have had some experience with guns because it targeted more at the right side of her body. It was as if the monster was always making her try to fake and dodge left so that the less dangerous wakizashi was towards him at all times. Artemis had tried to slash at him but the blade was short which made it hard for her to get close enough to hit it.

A chance for her to get some breathing room came when the creature snapped at her with its jaws. The movement lowered its head enough so that Artemis used it to spring board over the creatures back and land behind it. She brought her gun up but before she could get any kind of aim on the giant crocodile, its tail lashed upwards and she lost the grip on her gun when it smacked from her hand. The weapon went skidding across the floor and underneath a table to finally come to a rest on the other side.

She swore softly under her breath before she was dodging the creature's fist as it spun around backwards. Growling under its breath because it missed her yet again, the crocodile slammed it other fist into the concrete floor. Artemis didn't even have a chance to figure out why on earth it would do something like that before the ground shifted and cracked underneath the tremendous pressure. "Fuc-!" she didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as she lost her footing and fell onto her back.

The air rushed out of her body in a startled whoosh and she forced her eyes to open despite the fact she wanted nothing more then just take five. Like she thought the monster was cupping a fist with the opposite hand and holding them over its head. Deciding that it wasn't worth the resulting pain she brought her legs up and snapped them downwards popping herself back up onto her feet.

Not that it did her much good, she barely parallel to the ground when the massive fists were barely a few feet from her head and coming down in a swift arc. She threw all of her weight towards the one side and was just barely able to avoid the double fisted strike. Her momentum allowed her to roll several feet away and she was able to swing herself back up onto her feet.

She took a precious second to survey her surrounding for something that would help defeat the two ton reptile bent on caving in her head. Her eyes flickered from her gun, to the table it was next to then to the large piece of something hanging from the ceiling being suspended by a series of chains. She smiled even as the crocodile charge and swung at her again.

She waited while the creature continued to take wild yet powerful swings. After four such swings she made her move. When the creature left its face wide open she went into a back flip make sure that her feet connected solidly with the crocodile's jaw. It let out a 'wumph' as it jaws snapped shut.

When Artemis landed she jumped forward, curling into a roll and going between the monsters legs. The tail whipped around to hit her again but this time she was ready and planted her feet doing a little spring jump over the tail. She landed on her shoulders and rolled again to absorb the impact.

She had put about ten feet between her and the crocodile with her little stunt, a little more then what she had been hoping for. She waited a moment so that the monster could close the distance before twisting left with a few steps thrown in to lead the creature closer to her goal. She dodged several more hits leading the creature on.

She finally came into position and ducked underneath one more swing. Taking a deep yet quick breath she flipped backwards, this time making sure that her feet remained tucked into her body. She needed distance with this flip not an attack. Predictably the creature jerked backwards for a second thinking that she was going to kick him again. The long coat tails helped to add to the illusion that she was spring back to kick him. Realizing that it was a ruse, the crocodile lept forward to attack.

The monster was so involved in reaching for her that it failed to notice that her feet were just coming down on the far side of the table. The table tipped with the addition of the sudden weight and was smashed up into the crocodile's jaws. Again came the 'wumph' sound along with the audible snapping of jaws as the table met chin.

Artemis didn't take anytime in checking to see if the mutant was still standing. She rolled backwards off the table and over where her gun was, grabbing it as she rolled past. She came out of the roll and stood watching as the creature threw the table off to the side. It let out another roar but before it could take so much as one step towards her she lifted the gun opened fire.

She didn't bother wasting bullets on it, crocodile's had exceptionally thick skin and with it being a mutation there would be no telling if her bullets could pierce its hide. She knew that some of her specialty shots could blow through the skin but she didn't have the time to load any cartridges. Instead she took aim at the chains holding the mechanical thing (to her it looked like an engine and a drive shaft for a small boat but she wasn't sure) suspended above the floor.

She fired off six shots in rapid succession, each bullet breaking through a separate chain. With the chains missing the contraption fell, landing right across the back of the monster. It hit the ground with a loud grunt and crash. The creature then lay still except for its chest slowly raising and falling.

"Oh dear," came the metallic and British accented voice from off to her left. She glanced that way and saw what could only be described as a mismatched collection of machinery and electronics. Somehow the head peeking out from around some form of van looked vaguely human and yet had the appearance of a toaster.

"Leatherhead!" Michelangelo's scream cut through her thoughts of the strange android. She turned back to the overgrown mutant crocodile in awe. '**That **was Leatherhead?' she thought as her eyes ran over the figure on the ground.

A sea green blur with a streak of orange suddenly caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She turned in time to receive a flying kick into the chest. She hit the ground in a roll and popped back up to her feet only to be met by a nunchaku aimed right at her head. She brought her arm up and let the wooden weapon bounce off her arm instead of her skull. Using the wielder's startled reaction when she didn't fall back with a broken arm she brought her gun around and whipped it across his face.

The two combatants stumbled away from each other and eyed the other warily. Artemis clenched her fist around the gun in her hand as she tried to figure her chances of shooting the turtle before he could dodge. She had already used six of the nine bullets in that cartridge and she didn't think that the turtle would give her a chance to reload or pull out a different gun. She decided to wait and buy her time.

Michelangelo wiped the back of his hand across his face, glancing at the smear of blood the hit had left in its wake. "Where's Donnie?" he demanded as he flipped his nunchakus up so they were tucked under his arms.

"Give me a good reason why I should tell you," Artemis said flipping her blade around so that she was holding it by the handle like it should be held in an obvious invitation.

With a loud 'hoorah!' the youngest turtle whipped his nunchakus out from where he was holding them and spun them as he jumped at Artemis. Artemis stepped backwards giving the turtle ground as he began to whip his nunchakus back and forth this way and that way.

Artemis had to admit one thing about the normally laughing turtle, he knew how to fight. Where most would have broken their wrist, arms or even there noses the turtle was able to perform some of the most complex movements she had ever seen. Unlike Donatello he also had a habit of doing the most bizarre and original movements she had ever seen. She learned that the hard way when he unexpectedly did a hand stand and kicked her in the face with his heel.

He was also fast on both the attack and on the defense. Artemis found herself blocking or dodging attacks rather then attacking herself. If she was able to get a strike in it was almost always blocked or the turtle would simply dance out of the way. She was tempted to use the gun several times for something other then a club but she knew that the longer she went without actually using it the more confident the turtle would become that it was actually empty.

Artemis decided that the hardest part about fighting the young turtle wasn't the fact the he was next to impossible to hit but his weapons were more dangerous than given credit. Depending on if the weapon was being swung or spun dictated the length of the weapon. Spinning the nunchaku hid the location of the wooden stick and then to have the weapon suddenly whipped up and straight made it about two inches longer then it had previously had been. It wasn't a huge amount but there was enough of a difference that it made it hard to tell the direction and length of the weapon.

However, Michelangelo was expending twice the energy that Artemis was as he attempted to hit her. She watched as the turtle's strikes slowly began to slow down just enough for her to notice them though to an observer would seem him move with the same blinding speed. When he missed a strike and left his entire right side open, Artemis struck out with the butt of her gun aiming for his jaw.

She didn't realize her error until he suddenly vanished and she found her arm swinging through empty air. She didn't even have time to berate herself for the slip up before her feet were being kicked out from under her. As she fell she saw Michelangelo stand back up. She twisted herself around and caught herself on her forearms before her face could hit the ground.

Michelangelo wasn't the only one to use obscure fighting moves.

She pushed herself up into a handstand and one leg lashed out at the turtle's startled face. He dodged it but the whole point of the maneuver wasn't meant as an attack but rather a way for her to build up the momentum she needed. Falling to her one shoulder and using the momentum from the faux kick, she brought both her legs whipping around to connect solidly with the turtle's chin. The momentum from the hit put all her weight onto the top of the head. She put out one hand with the knuckles planted firmly on the ground and rolled the weight back onto her shoulder before setting down her elbow and lifting herself up with that. Her legs were still in the middle of the previous swing and came around again. She hit the back of Michelangelo's knees which made him topple over with a cry. She pushed up with her elbow so that all her weight was then resting on her knuckles and leveled her body off. Her feet were planted firmly on the ground and she stood up, over the downed turtle and aimed the gun at his head.

"Gottcha."

* * *

_The moves Artemis used to take down Michelangelo is an actual fighting style Brazilian capoeira that reminds me of break dancing. Its really cool to watch because it combimes a persons natural flexibility and fighting. Though the 'fights' are more like a dance competition and the goal is not to actually hit your opponent, I imagine accidently hitting your opponent would hurt like hell and I could just see Artemis using this style to flabbergast the turtles._


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…_

_I've changed this to an Adventure/Suspense story because I've been evil when it comes to cliffhangers._

Sharpshooter

Chapter Nine

Artemis was beginning to wonder why she had ever agreed to this assignment. It not like she had ever had good luck in New York. The last time she was here she was almost caught by a rookie police officer who happened to come across her already shot three times from her target who decided to fight back. This current mission was doing nothing to chance her opinion about the 'city that never sleeps'.

She made an important discussion that moment. If she was ever contracted to take out a ninja clan or a group of mutants again she would decline the offer. Tracked down who tried to hire and rip out there intestines to use as her new bra.

She was seriously beginning to get annoyed with these mutants ninja turtles.

Just as she was about to pull the trigger something hit the back of her hand. Whatever it was it was sharp and heavy. It tore through the back of her glove and sliced into the back of her hand. The weight of the object was enough to make her lose her grip on her gun which flew off into some random corner of the warehouse. There was also a subdue crack that came from her hand. The resulting pain told her that something had been broken or at the very least fractured.

Hissing in pain she turned to see who had thrown whatever it was that had flew off past her after it impacted with her hand. She had except to see that android standing their trying to look innocent or holding a broom or something else to threaten her away from the turtle. From the material she had on him that would have been a miracle and a half. He detested fighting. Or maybe Leatherhead had recovered enough to throw something at her hand and was trying to free himself from under the debris. However when she turned and saw who it was she only had one thing to say.

"Aww, shit."

Barreling towards her with a look that clearly promised ill was a dark green terrapin wearing a red bandanna. His remaining sai was clutched while his other hand remained empty. At least Artemis now knew what had hit her hand. Eyes narrowed and a growl emitting from his throat, Raphael pounced.

Artemis was able to turn towards him just as Raphael tackled her to the floor. Her broken hand automatically wrapped around the wrist of his hand holding the sai while Raphael did the same to her hand holding her wakizashi. She hit the floor on her back but quickly pushed herself with her legs so that she rolled to the side. Raphael went with her and they began rolling across the floor each trying to get on top of the other and gain the advantage.

Artemis knew she was in trouble. Raphael easily out weighted her by at least forty pounds. When their roll finally ended and if Raphael was able to gain the upper hand his weight alone could pin Artemis to the ground. Against the strongest turtle she was also seriously out matched in raw power.

Finally while in the middle of being rolled again onto her back she saw the opening she had been looking for. Raphael wasn't as close to her as he had been in the past. It was as if he was trying to jump slightly and land on her rather then just rolling over again. It gave her just enough room to bring both her legs up and plant her feet right on his chest. She gave him a smirk as he glanced down at her feet before she shoved off with her feet.

Despite his strength Raphael wasn't able to hang on to her wrist and went flying away from her. The force of the shove was enough to help her get back to her feet. As she stood she reached for her other shoulder holster and the gun that was still there. She had had enough playing for tonight. It was time to get serious.

Before she was even fully upright she was twisting herself around to avoid something coming at her from the side. She honestly didn't know what it was she was dodging but the blade that sliced threw part of her bangs was all she needed to know. She brought up her leg as she spun and lashed out at whoever had attacker her, satisfied when it connected with a shoulder. It would have been better if it was his head but even the smallest victory was a good thing.

She followed through with the kick and regained her feet. She found herself jumping backwards and off to the side as one blade came down in a vertical arc and the other came around at about waist level. After the two blades she found herself retreating backwards again to avoid a snap kick and even then it was such a close miss that she could feel the air being displaced as the green foot sweep past.

The older turtle brothers definitely didn't like someone pulling a gun on their little brother and kidnapping the other.

Leonardo's face was masked with determination and just a hint of anger as he barely gave Artemis a second to collect her wits. He slashed at her again and again forcing her to stay on the move. Artemis found herself dodging this way and that as she avoided swords, feet and the occasionally hilt or elbow. At least now Artemis knew that the supposed leader of the group did use katanas and not the shorter ninjaken.

During one of her near misses, Artemis caught sight of Raphael charging forward to rejoin the fight now clutching both sais around the baton so that the hilt lay down along his forearms. She gritted her teeth as she blocked a sword with her blade and then back stepped to prevent from being stabbed by the other. If Leo and Raph were able to pin her between the two of them she would really be in serious trouble. Both of them were twice as skilled as she was in combat. It was only because of luck and relying heavily on some of the more obscure fighting styles that she had been able to last this long against them.

She hoped that they weren't this good after she told them about her 'affair' with their brother.

She had yet to use her arm guards in the fight but now did so, blocking one of Leonardo's swords with it as the blade came in from her side. She pulled her arm back and the layers of Kevlar shifted, trapping the blade in between the layers. It was a useful and unforeseen advantage that the arm bands offered. Shock clearly showed on Leo's face when the blade didn't cut into flesh like he though and it was even more surprised when he couldn't easily pull the sword free.

Had he been given the time, Leonardo might have been able to pull the sword free but as he tried to pull it free a second time he received a devastating kick in the side. He gasped in pain as the metal plate covering Artemis' shin scored a direct hit on his ribs. The force of the kick was enough to send him flying away with only one sword in his hand. The other was still caught in Artemis' jacket.

Spinning with the kick Artemis relaxed the arm with the sword caught in her jacket sleeve. She grabbed the weapon with her opposite hand and threw it like a javelin at Raphael. He slid to a stop and brought his sais spinning them around from the offensive hold so that he was once again holding the hilts. One came up hitting the katana that had been aimed at his throat so that it was sent up into the air. The other came in from the side catching the katana near the hilt with a practiced flick of the wrist he sent the blade end over end towards his brother, "Back at 'cha, Leo!" The older turtle easily caught the blade around the hilt as he stood back up.

Artemis missed the whole display because just seconds after she had thrown the blade something hit her hard right across the stomach. She staggered backwards as Michelangelo spun with the momentum of his first kick and lashed out again with the same leg. His kick had enough power in it making him hop a few inches off the ground with his opposite foot. Unlike the past few times Artemis was completely caught off guard that the younger turtle was attacking her let alone up from the hits he had already received. She felt the full force of the kick as the top of his foot connected solidly with her cheek.

She staggered backwards, twisting to try and absorb the impact. It wasn't in her best interest though. Leonardo met her with his own snap kick caused her jaw to clamp shut. Mikey's kick had caused her nose to start bleeding and Leo's kick made it even worst as she tasted the coppery flavor as she bit through part of her tongue or cheek. The side of her head hurt enough as it was that the added pain didn't register in her mind.

She stumbled backwards trying to make herself appear more dazed then she actually was. She had to get away from them. With the three turtles relatively calm and composed they were a fighting force that was easily better then her. One on one she stand somewhat of a chance but one on three she was overpowered and out gunned, figuratively speaking anyways.

She had hoped that her act seemed reasonably accurate for someone just about to faint from repeated hits to her head. As she fell she noticed that both Michelangelo and Raphael were standing on either side of her with in striking distance. Just before she hit the ground she threw down her hand and caught herself on her knuckles as her hand clutched at her wakizashi. She swung herself around catching Raphael in the legs and knocking him to the floor. Michelangelo jumped over her legs but she had figured that would happen.

Her free hand had reached into her jacket and pulled out her other T-Bird Five. As Michelangelo jumped she pulled out the gun and pulled the trigger. Three shots barked out quickly in the otherwise silent room. For a split second time seemed to stop as everyone in the room held their breath. Then time sped up again as blood splattered through the air.

"Mikey!" Leo screamed as he saw his little brother get shot three times before his eyes. He began to run forward mentally cursing himself for thinking she had been knocked out. It didn't matter that he couldn't predict she was faking it. All he cared about was one of his brothers had been shot, possibly even killed, because of him.

Artemis blamed her massive headache for her poor aim. That and she was randomly firing on the move. She saw the points of entry on the bullets as their velocity carried them right through the reptile's body. He had been hit in the thigh, on the inside of his forearm and on his upper triceps, none of the injuries were fatal but they all had to hurt.

Her feet touched down then and she forced herself to run forward. Pain raced through her body with every step. She knew that besides the fact her armor had protected her from the brunt of the damage some of her injuries were going too required medical attention later.

"Mikey!" came Raph's voice from behind her.

"I'm fine! Just get her! Stop her!" pain laced the young turtle's voice but there was enough determination behind it that Artemis knew the other two turtles were going to be after her with a vengeance.

She ran past Leatherhead surprised to see the behemoth moving around and starting to get up. The engine had to have weighted a good ton yet the creature was standing up as if a blanket was draped over it. The creature was holding his head and shaking it back and forth. The force of the block falling may not have done much to injure him but it had certainly thrown him for a loop.

"Professor! Leatherhead! Take care of Mikey!" she heard Leo yell from behind her. She took two more steps and launched herself into the air. She brought her forearms up and in front of her face. The steel and Kevlar arm bands easily went through the glass of the window she had jumped through. She hit the ground in a roll and reached her feet.

As she went up and over the fence she realized what kind of damaged her rifle had to be in. With all the rolling and falling on it she had done that night she made a mental note to herself to give it an entire overhaul before the final fight. She didn't think she would get a chance to use it but she wasn't going to take any chances when she went up against the turtles again.

She was reaching the entrance of an alley across the street when she could just barely hear twin thumps as the turtles followed her over the fence. She ran down the alley, jumping up on top of a trash can then a dumpster to get higher enough to jump up onto the fire escape. She pulled herself up and over the metal railing and then took to the stairs two at a time as she headed for the roof.

She put away her gun and pulled on her suko spikes as she flew up the fire escape. Even though she couldn't hear them, she could tell the turtles were following her from the gentle vibrations running up the fire escape.

The second her feet were on the roof's tarmac she was off and running as fast as she could go. She had no idea how fast the turtles could run over the rooftops especially when they were angry but she wasn't in any mood to find out right then. She was wounded, at a terrible disadvantage, and wanting nothing more then to go home and sleep at that moment. After she had patched herself back together anyways.

She flew over the rooftops using every trick in the book that she knew would help her gain more ground from her presuers. She stayed in a straight line heading towards the more heavily populated parts of the city. She didn't think the turtles would be so eager to follow her into the brightly lit part of the town. Unlike her they would stick out much more then she would.

She flipped, twisted, ran up walls, scrambled up ladders, and jumped over gaps in her flight. The turtles matched her every move, slowly but surely gaining on her as her wounds began to way on her. She knew that eventually they would catch up to her. Gritting her teeth she forced herself to run faster despite the pain that was continuously flaring up on her one side. It wasn't often she was forced into a tactical retreat such as this. A part of her mind whispered that this was why it was so important to get information on all parties before attacking.

It was bound to happen eventually. Her injuries were too numerous and in some chases so great that she was surprised that it hadn't happened sooner. In mid leap to another rooftop she miscalculated the jump and came up to short. She watched in horror as the roof was below her and then suddenly passing by her eyes as she fell by it.

She slammed her hands against the wall letting the suko spikes catch into it and slow her descent. She glanced down as her head began to fly through equations and computations. Sliding down the side of a building without any form of preparation was almost suicidal. As it was, Artemis didn't have a clue of how many stories she sliding down. All she knew was that her speed was getting to great to be safe by any means. It wasn't as if she could just flip over to the next building either. She had ever tried to use this maneuver between two building before and from what her quick head math figured it wouldn't be a pretty outcome.

In the end she ended up spring away from the wall and grabbing a hold of one of the many clothes lines that ran btween the two buildings. She wasn't surprised when the line broke, in fact she had been hoping it would. As she swung on the line like a mokey on a vine she repressed the urge to let out a Tarzan like cry that would make the jugle king proud. She let herself bounce off the wall letting her legs take most of the impact as she let go of the rope and let her spikes drag down the wall. She slid down the last three stories to land with a clatter in a pile of trash and garbage cans.

She didn't think that the fall would slow the turtles down any so before the cans ceased their clatter she was moving. She tore out the hair tie holding her hair back in its braid and began to fluff her tresses with one hand while the other undid the strap on her rifle. With years of practice she quickly and efficiently broke down her rifle and tucked it away under her jacket, lashing the pieces onto her belt with a length of cord. She then stood forcing herself to walk with out a limp and pulled off her gloves. She licked the palm of her hand several time, smearing it with her saliva before scrubbing at her face to remove the excess blood. Then she pushed her hands deep into her jacket's pockets and pulled the jacket about herself to help hide the weapons she carried as she stepped out onto the busy streets.

The light and noise assaulted her as she walked out of the dark and into the light. She took a quick glance around at her surroundings not really caring where she was as much as how to get away from there. She watched as a yellow cub drove by on the street and stepped up flagging one down and crawling inside. She glanced back out the window at the alley she had just come out from and wasn't surprised to see two dark shadows duck down into hiding behind some debris.

"Where to missy?" the cabbie drawled from the other side of the divider. He appeared bored out of his mind and the scent of cigars and onio rings permeated the air inside the cramped space.

Artemis resisted the urge to gag on the offensive smells, "JFK."

The cabbie gave a single nod before pulling out into traffic a little faster then safety permeated. As he drove, Artemis pulled the bug locater that Donatello had invented. It was a relatively simple design and Artemis took a moment to admire the small handheld device that looked a lot like a PDA. She pressed a few buttons on the screen that scanned her person for any form of transceiver. When three blips popped up she wasn't in the least bit surprised. The turtles were very cautious and desperate to get their brother back.

When she reached the airport she paid the cabbie his fare and then walked into the busy place despite the late hour. In her hand was the three bugs, each of them just simple homing transceivers that had to have been slipped onto her person during the fighting. As she wandered, seemingly aimlessly through the terminals, she passed off the bugs onto three unlikely people. She could imagine the turtles confusion when their bugs all went in different directions.

Acting as nonchalant as possible Artemis jimmied the lock on a door marked 'Authorized Personal Only' and walked into the store room on the other side. Keeping her hands in her pockets she walked through the store room heading for the back of it where she could gain access to the parking garge. She was surprised when she heard footsteps coming running up from behind her. She sighed as she heard a voice ring out, "Stop! What are you doing in here?"

Obediently she stopped and looked over her shoulder at a young man in a security guard uniform. He looked young to her, maybe only in his mid twenties at most. He had his gun out and fixed on her even though she could clearly see that he had left the safety on. "I'm going to my car."

He looked skeptical and nodded his head back the way she had came and the formerly locked down. "Did you read the sign? And how did you get past the door? It was locked."

She rolled her eyes and turned to face him with her hands up in the classic surrender pose. He obviously didn't dye his hair that color blond. "It's called breaking and entering. Now shouldn't you be arresting me?"

The young man looked suspicious but approached anyways pulling a pair of cuffs out of his belt. He clipped the cuffs on one of her wrists before twisting it down and around so that her hands would be cuffed behind her. As stopped him from reaching for her other wrist by asking, "Shouldn't you frisk me first?"

Again she received a suspicious look but the young man began to pat her down looking for any suspicious lumps. His faced was in a frown as he ran his hands down over her torso feeling all the extra armor in her clothing. When he reached her waist he pushed the coat open more and his eyes bugled at the weaponry he saw. "Holy Shi-"

One of her hands covered his mouth while the other gripped the back of his head. He didn't even have a chance to fight back as she jerked her hands quickly and suddenly to the side. There was a resounding crack and the man fell limply into her legs. "Amateur," she mumbled as she let the body go and he fell to the ground. Stopping over her prey, Artemis went through his pockets, keeping the twenty dollars she found in his wallet and the car keys to a Dodge neon. "Thanks," she said as she stood and walked away from the body without a second glance backwards.

She entered the parking garage and used the vehicle's panic button to locate it. Luckily it wasn't that far from the service entrance she had exited from and she soon found herself sliding behind the wheel. She drove down to the other side of town before ditching the vehicle in an alley. By the time morning came around the car would be stripped and even harder for the police to identify. There were some perks to being in New York.

She walked back to her temporary home and headed for the maintenance elevator. As it slowly rose to the upper floors she leaned back against the wall and took a few minutes to rest. She wanted to get into her apartment, patch herself up and then pump herself with enough painkillers to knock her out for the next few days. With the grand finale coming the following night she knew that there wasn't going to be a chance to knock herself out. She would lucky to get a few solid hours of sleep at the rate she was going.

She walked into her apartment yawning and stretching careful of the sore spots that riddled her body. She heard what sounded like a whimper from her bedroom and paused listening to it for a moment. There was something about that sound that sent a chill down her spine. She marched into the bedroom, one hand reaching for a gun, the other flicking on a light switch. The room was empty except for Donatello who was still strapped to the bed.

He made that whimpering sound again and Artemis ran her eyes over him. He was trembling again, almost as bad as when he had first been giving the shot. His head was moving back and forth slightly and he was mumbling under his breath. Judging by the way he was acting something was seriously wrong with the turtle. Suddenly his movements became faster and more desperate and with one final shudder he went limp and unmoving.

He wasn't even breathing.

"Shit!" Artemis said and ran forward. After all she had put up with because of him their was no way this turtle could die yet. She still needed him for one last thing.

But no matter how desperately she searched she couldn't find a pulse.

* * *

_See, told you I was evil._


	10. Chapter 10

_Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…_

Sharpshooter

_(The camerais in a dark alley with a dark clothed figure hustling by. It stops and sneaks over to the camera, looking both ways before pulling back the hood. Sanru looks around again before speaking.)_

_Hi, I can really stay put long so I'll make this short and sweet. This chapter contains a bad words like most of the fic has had and Artemis lies about raping Don. I'm kind of worried that I'm over stepping the 'T' rating on this story so if anyone thinks I am please tell me so I don't get booted from the server. _

_Also, a little heads up, there are only two chapters left after this one. The next chapter is very, very long and has a semi graphic image in it. Okay make that graphic image just in case. It's a gore filled scene that I need to try and tame down a bit before I post the next chapter. The chapter is filled with blood spray and guts laying around after dismemberment with some extradetails in here. I don't think it warrants and 'M' rating so I'll keep this story 'T' but if anyone is offended by anything I write, or thinks I need to tone it down a bit, let me know, and I'll remove the story till I get rid of whatever offends you._

_(The sounds of thousands of footsteps come thundering down the alley.)_

_Stayed put to long I guess. See ya! (Sanru runs in the opposite direction of the noise)_

_Donatello's Fan Club Memebers: Get her! She killed him! Don't let her get away!_

Chapter Ten

Artemis stood on her balcony watching as the sun slowly rose over the city. As the sun came up so did the inhabitants and the city slowly began to awaken. She sighed as a gentle yet chilly breeze pulled at her hair and the loose and baggy cloths she wore. She walked back into her apartment and closed the doors to block out the chill.

She walked into the bathroom and turned on the water letting it run into the sink and down the drain. Testing it with one hand, she waited until it was shockingly cold before splashing it onto her face. She wiped away the excess water that clung to her face with a hand towel before looking back into the mirror.

She looked like something the cat had brought in and had been left to decompose for several years under the couch before it was discovered. There was some swelling and bruising on the underside of her jaw. The area was tender enough that she was sure there was a hairline fracture there. Her hand was wrapped as well with a faint pink tint across the back of it. The sai had left a deep gash in it that continued to bleed sluggishly and as far as she could tell there were several broken bones along the back of her hand. She also had several cracked ribs but there was little she could do for them other then pain relievers.

With a sigh she left the bathroom and stopped in the doorway to her bedroom. She leaned against the door frame and looked to the figure on the bed. "You're turning out to be more trouble then your worth, you know that right?" she said after a moment of just watching him.

Donatello's chest was slowly rising and falling. The large turtle looked like he was asleep as he lay sprawled out on the bed. An IV was snaking down and into his arm which was strapped to a board to help keep it immobile. He was no longer bound to the bed and he had a pillow jammed under his head as well as a blanket draped over his body.

Artemis closed her eyes and let her head hang. She wasn't expecting an answer anyways. Out of all the lives she had ever taken she had never once found herself in the situation of saving one. Especially saving the life of someone she was contracted to kill.

The night before was a whirlwind of images, trying desperately to remember what she new about cardiac and respiratory arrest, and cussing in several languages over and over again. She clearly remembered that at one point she had threatened to kill him if he didn't start breathing again. Looking back on it now caused a small smile to grace her lips. It seemed kind of pointless to say that to a dying person especially since she was going to kill him later.

There was something about that statement that got to her and the words seemed to echo eerily in her head. She really didn't want to kill the turtle. His brothers she didn't care about but he for some reason was different. The only thing she could think of that was different about this turtle was that she had kidnapped him instead of out right killing him like she should have. She looked up at the prone form again and just stared at him.

She wasn't sure how long she watched him before stepping away from the door and moving to perch on the side of the bed next to him. Her hand fluttered from his steady pulse up to his brow where it stayed as if she was checking him for a fever. Her hand then slid down to cup his cheek.

Finally she pulled her hand away and looked down to her feet. "Good going, girl," she said to herself in the otherwise quiet room. "You've developed feelings for a target. Hats off to you, you dip shit."

* * *

The heavy footsteps of someone running came over her headset as she began to look over Sensei. The rifle had taken a beating from the previous night. Part of the barrel had been bent and was in need of a replacement and part of the scope needed to be fabricated again. The paint had also been scraped and scratched off allowing the dull sheen of metal to be visible. The whole gun would need to be stripped and repainted so that it was again as black as possible and therefore harder to see.

There was a bang as the person running threw open a door. As Artemis began to take apart part of her scope she listened with interest as April's voice called out in the near emptiness of where ever she was. "Leo! Raph! Mikey! Guys?! Master Splinter! Professor! Leatherhead! Where are you?"

"What's wrong, April?"

"Oh Leo, I-I… It's…"

"Calm down, my child," Splinter's voice echoed eerily through out the room which made Artemis to believe that they were in a large empty room like a hanger. "Whatever is the matter?"

"This came in the mail this morning… It was delivered first thing to the store."

"What is it?"

"Oh god," came a quiet reply as well as a choked sob. April obviously hadn't taken her gift very well. As far as Artemis was concerned she was a wimp anyways.

The rustling of the package was heard. "What the shell?" She was barely able to hear Leonardo's voice over the speakers.

"What's going on?"

"Mikey go lay down. Ya need ta rest."

"I'm fine."

"Mikey-"

"Raph! I'm fine! None of the bullets hit anything important! So I was shot, big deal! That psycho still has Donnie! Stop babying me and focus on getting him back!"

"A little family drama first thing in the morning always makes my day," Artemis said as she finished rewiring part of the miniaturized computer on her rifle. She blew across the casing to remove any dust particles she might have missed. Then taking a small screwdriver reattached the casing over the delicate parts. The outer casing was cleaned in a similar fashion and reattached just as the first one had been.

"She's gone to far this time," Leonardo's voice was dark and menacing. Artemis smiled. He obviously like her gift less then April did.

"Oh Donnie…" Raph's voice went from disbelief to anger. "When I get my hands on her she'll wish she never even heard of us."

"My son…"

"Donnie…"

The family's reaction had been about what she had expected. Anger towards her, worry towards Donatello and a slight tint of helplessness. She had sent them a little invitation to join her and Donatello in the warehouse complete with an incentive. She had originally was just going to send out the invitation but after last night's little game of 'knock the shit out of the assassin' she felt that the turtles deserved a little more worrying.

What better way to make them fret then by sending them their brother's purple bandanna splattered with dried blood?

"There's a note in the box," April whispered again. She seemed to be a little more composed then when she first ran into the room. "It's a challenge to save him, but it doesn't give a location, just a set of numbers."

It was just a set of numbers with a little clue on how to read them properly. She wasn't that use to sending messages to her prey but even she knew that the turtles needed to be confounded enough to slow them down till that night. Then everything would be settled once and for all.

"016316? What the hell does that mean?"

"I don't know Raphael. But we must figure out what it means so that we may retrieve your brother."

"Why is it on the back of the note?"

"Professor, do you recognize it?"

"Hmmm… Unfortunately the numbers don't look familiar. Perhaps they are coordinates to Donatello's location."

"It's gotta be a trap."

"That's why you shall not go alone, Raphael. I plan on accompanying you in this endeavor."

Artemis stopped refitting the barrel and sighed. Of course the two ton crocodile would go with them. She turned the transceiver off and placed the newly refurbished gun in its hangers. Everything was going according to plan, except for the whole Leatherhead going with them thing. The monster was going to be a pain in her neck. In fact she should account for the fact that all their friends would accompany them to the warehouse.

This was going to be a fight of epic proportions.

"And all because of little old me," she said as she walked out of her armory. The doors slid closed behind her and she sighed. She needed to get some sleep before tonight. She had a sinking feeling that she had bitten off a little more then she could chew.

She walked into the bedroom and checked over her patient. His breathing was still a little shallow but his heartbeat was still strong if somewhat slow. She didn't want him to slip into respiratory arrest again so with a resigned sigh she crawled into bed with him. She cuddled up to his side and laid her head over his heart. If his heart stopped or he stopped breathing she would hear and feel the difficulty this way. As her head was gently lifted up and down and the soothing pounding filled her ear she let herself fall asleep.

She woke a few hours later when her pillow began to shift around slightly. For a split second she panicked thinking that the turtle was having another hard attack or couldn't breathe. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized he was just awake and trying to move around. "Good afternoon, sunshine," she mumbled sleepily into his shoulder.

More movement. "What?"

She sighed and looked up at him, her eyes flicking to the clock for a moment to see what time it was. "Just shut up and go back to sleep. You need to get some rest for tonight."

His eyes were half lidded as he looked at her sleepily. "You look like shit," he mumbled and Artemis wondered if he even realized who she was.

"You don't look like any Bird of Paradise flower yourself, cutie. I can thank your brothers for the little make over."

"My brothers?" he echoed looking confused.

"Yes, your brothers. I went to 'negotiate' the terms of your release so to speak."

"April, why are you be holding me prisoner?"

Artemis chuckled and propped herself up on her elbow so she was looking down on the confused turtle. "You might want to get a better look before you call me names."

His eyes narrowed and a look of intense focus crossed his face. After a second his eyes went wide and he tried to shift away only to find that he couldn't move. "Shit," he growled and he looked at her with eyes a little clearer but just as exhausted. "What the hell did you do to me?" he demanded.

She sighed starting to feel a little guilty that she had almost let him die. A small voice in her head whispered that that was what she was going to do anyways so why prolong the inevitable? "I overdosed you on Methaqualone. In human terms you should havebeen fine but I forgot that I'm not dealing with a human. Your physiology is completely alien to me."

"Why do I feel so weak?"

"A combination of dehydration," she gestured to the IV beg hanging overhead. "Hence the fluids and the Methaqualone which is a heavy duty muscle relaxant and tranquilizer. It was more powerful then I thought so you ended up having a heart attack and your breathing became depressed."

He regarded her for a moment, "If you want me to die then why are you giving me medical attention?" She gave him a half hearted glare before settling her head back onto his chest. A twitch ran through his body as if he wanted to move away but couldn't. "Am I paralyzed?" he asked after a moment.

"Hard to tell," she murmured into his chest. "I told you, your physiology is completely alien to me. I don't know how certain drugs will affect you without experimenting and I don't want to risk that."

"Of course, you don't want to lose your bargaining chip until after its usefulness is used up then you'll discard it." There was poison in his voice as he angrily spat out the words.

"NO!" Artemis said surprising both the turtle and herself. For a minute they both looked at each other. Artemis' mind was doing a complete flip. She was an assassin, someone who killed for a living, yet here she was refusing to kill one of her targets. She thought back to all her kills both for money, some in defensive and others just because she could. None of them had ever made her hesitate or refuse to kill them.

What was it about Donatello that made it so much difficult?

Donatello was still watching her with narrowed eyes. "So then what are you going to do with me?"

"Like my message to your brothers said, I've always wanted a pet turtle," she said with a shrug. She honestly had no idea what to do with a five foot tall ninja turtle.

"I will never trust you, like you, or even consider being nice to you if you kill my family. I will kill you for killing them."

With a sad smile Artemis put her head back down on his chest despite his obvious disgust. Only if I can beat them, she thought to herself.

* * *

She was giving the warehouse one last walk through before show time. She was checking and making sure that her stash was hidden well yet could easily be accessed. She had learned that the turtles were going to be coming in force earlier that day as well as their allies. Leatherhead, the vigilante, Master Splinter, April and even that robot were all going to be there for the fun. Yes, this was going to be the largest fight she would ever be in and she wasn't going to take any chances. One slip up and she was as good as dead.

She was armed to the teeth and her 'stash' ran from spare guns to ammo to gernades. With all their allies and the turtles themselves to deal with Artemis knew she was going to have to be quick on the attack and even quicker on her feet. One good hit from Raphael, Leatherhead or Casey and she would be little more then a pinball whizzing about the room. The speed of Michelangelo could keep her hopping from one foot to the other while Leonardo and Splinter came at her from behind. They would work together in tandem and try to keep her out flanked and off balanced.

Of course, guessing their strategies and figuring out how to over come them wouldn't do anything if they couldn't figure out the clue. They had tried everything from coordinates to an address number to a phone number but they just couldn't seem to figure it out. She walked back to the center of the warehouse. "Maybe I should have grabbed one of the other turtles. You would have been able to figure out the clue easily, I'm sure."

Donatello was unconscious again and she shook her head. She had told him to get as much rest as possible for tonight but it looked as if the turtle had past out. She did feel bad from stringing him up the way she did. From his wrist down to his elbows were wrapped in a chain that she had suspended from the main support the ran the lengthof the warehouse. She had purposely wrapped the majority of his arms to help lessen the strain on his wrist. His ankles to his knees were chained for the same purpose but instead of being chained off to a support beam the chain was wrapped around and secured to a large piece of metal that had just been laying around in a nearby alley. It was heavy and Artemis had to take a forklift to it to get it to the warehouse. Then she had chained the turtle up to it letting the weight hang an inch off the ground. That combined with the turtle's paralysis meant that he was kept completely helpless.

She stood in front of the unconscious figure for a moment. She had decided what to do with him even though she knew what his reaction was going to be. After she was done with his brothers and his friends she was going to take him away from New York. She figured that he would like Athens even if she was going to have to keep him a prisoner in her home. He would probably try to escape or try to kill her but maybe she could figure out what there was about him that made her not wat to kill him but rather protect him.

It definitely was a new feeling for her.

With a shake of her head, she reached into her belt and pulled out her headset so she could listen in on the other turtles. She kind of hoped that they had figured it out and were o their way but the sounds that came through the ear piece was the same as when she checked in on them last time. Leo and Raph were arguing about wasting time attempting to be broken up by Casey Jones. Or he was just urging them on, Artemis real couldn't tell what the three of them were yelling at each other. The Professor, Leatherhead, April and Master Splinter were still trying to decipher the number code that she had sent them. Judging by the sounds of it, Michelangelo had retreated to the kitchen to make snacks and judging about how the yelling seemed to be escalating it was in his better interest. "Do your brothers always fight over the littlest detail?" she asked Donatello.

Michelangelo suddenly came screaming from over the headset, "I got it! I got it! Dudes stop fighting! I know how to figure out where Donnie is!"

That had everyone's attention and the lair went silent. "How?" Leonardo said.

"Well, when I reached into the cupboard to get some crackers some of the cereal boxes fell out. I didn't think about it but when I went to put the boxes back I had to flip it over. Lookee, the little arrow in on the bottom of the note so when you flip it over you hide the true message and just get a random jumble of numbers. But if you twist it so its the way it was before you flip the note-"

"It still don't make sense," Raphael grumbled.

"Actually, I think Michelangelo has it," the Professor's voice said. "If you change the number into the letters they appear most similar to it spells-"

"P - I - E - P - I- O. Piepio?"

"Remember, this Artemis has ties to Greece. It the Greek alphabet P is pronounce 'roe' which could mean that one of these P's is actually an r."

"P - I - E - R - I - O? That a name or something?" Raph tried again.

"Nope. It means Pier 10. She has Donnie down at the docks." Leonardo's voice said with a tint of pride, "Good job Mikey. Let's go guys!"

"Finally," Artemis said as she pulled the headset off an tucked it back away in her belt. "You should be proud of your younger brother," she said to Donatello. "He just led your family to their doom."

After that Artemis forced herself to calm down and focus, closing her eyes to help her reach her inner peace. She had practiced martial arts for a very short time but there was one lesson that she had taken by heart. Her Sensei had told her that by finding her own inner strength she could overcome anything. She centered herself then like she had done some many times in the past and waited.

She was glad that less then fifteen minutes later something hit the main doors of the warehouse with the strength of a small car. She jumped slightly at the first bang but forced herself to relax. A lump seemed to form in her throat suddenly as another loud bang came from the doors followed by the sound of twisting and ripping steel.

Leatherhead was definitely in a bad mood.

She heard the clattering of steel as the door was thrown aside followed by the angry growl as the crocodile advanced. Finally after hearing three heavy footsteps she opened her eyes. "Welcome," she called out as she did a classic military about face. She was a little surprised to see them all right there coming through the main doors. She though for sure that at least Leonardo would be hiding in the shadows waiting to pounce but as her eyes ran over them she accounted for each and everyone of the turtles and their allies. Even the red head was there wearing what looked like a black workout suit that had red racing stripes running up the legs and arms. "It's so nice of you to join us."

"Release him," Leo growled taking a meancing step forward. Everyone seemed to be folowing his lead, waiting for him to make the calls.

Artemis looked back at her prisoner as if she was deciding to do what Leo demanded. "No," she said at last turning back to them. "I don't think that would be in his best interest."

"And suspending him from the ceiling is?" Raphael bellowed across the explanse of the warehouse. He went to move past Leo but Leo held his katana out blocking his path. They gave each other a glare but Raphael seemed to back down. For now.

"What I meant to say before I was so rudely interrupted," she said uncrossing her arms from across her chest. "Is that your brother is feeling slightly under the weather."

"What did you do to him?"

Leonardo was obviously acting as the negotiator Artemis thought. She let her eyes run over the odd group assembled before her making sure that they were all there and no one had slipped off. She wouldn't be surprised if that was their whole plan in the first place. "I just gave him a little too much Methaqualone," she said with a shrug. "No biggie."

"Methaqualone is a powerful sedative and muscle relaxant that depresses the central nervous system," the Professor said from where he was standing near the back of the odd group.

"I guess you're called the 'Professor' for a reason," Artemis said with a shrug. "Hey, if your so smart can you tell me if its a bad idea to mix Methaqualone with Flunitrazepam? Donatello hasn't been that coherent after I gave him that."

The Professor gave out a small 'oh my' and April's face went from concern to absolute horror. Like wise the growling from Leatherhead went up a notch till it was deep and loud enough that Artemis could almost feel the floor vibrate. "Umm... For those of us who are not gifted with the knowledgeof medical sounding stuff." Michelangelo scratched his head with his left arm that had two set of bandages wrapped around it and another one wrapped around his thigh. She wondered if he had to fight with his brothers to join them. "But what a Flutetrezpan?"

"It's commonly known as a 'roofie', Mikey," April said. Her mouth was opened to say more but Raphael suddenly cut her off.

"You raped him!"

Artemis gave him a sly smile, "Well, I'm not really the kind of girl who kisses then talks about it but since you asked so nicely-" She jumped back and pulled herself up on the chain so she was along side Donatello. She twisted his head to the side and kissed him in full view of his friends and family. "Yes," she said as she pulled back.

The reaction was even better then she could have ever hoped. For a period of about three seconds there was complete and utter silence through out the warehouse. Even Leatherhead's growling had vanished. Then Raphael's voice pierced the stillness that had descended over the room. "You... You... YOU BITCH!" he then charged disregarding any attempts to stop him. Not that there were any forth coming. The expression had gone from disbelief to out right anger at Raph's decleration and when he charged so did his brothers, Leatherhead and Casey. Master Splinter attempted to call his sons back and Artemis had an unsettling feeling that he knew she had just lied. April and the robot turn and ran along a wall taking an extend route around the warehouse to reach Donatello as far as Artemis could tell.

Artemis gave the turtle one last kiss on the cheek to help raise the ire in the family more. She then leapt away from the turtle and began to run towards the odd concengiency barreling towards her. The adrenaline began pumping through her system as she finally let herself understand that it was time to show the creatures who was boss in that warehouse.

When the combatants were about thirty feet apart and closing in on each other fast and explosion rocketed the warehouse. Artemis found herself toppling off her feet as debris was blown inward. She heard the turtles swearing and Leonardo's voice asking if everyone was alright. Artemis looked toward the hole in the warehouse with a frown. While she did have some explosives hidden over there she couldn't think of how the charges could have gone off. As she watched though a huge hulking shape came through the dust still drifting about from the explosion. Artemis watched as the mass that easily reviled Leatherhead's slowly came into view. "Hun!" Casey's voice rang out in surprise and Artemis found herself cocking an eyebrow in confusion

Artemis had only read about Hun from a paparatzies' article that connected the famed leader of the Purple Dragons to a mysterious 'bodygaurd' that was sometimes seen lucking in Oroku Saki's home. The reporter had mysteriously vanished a few days later and most of his photos had gone missing but Artemis had been able to find one showing the mountain of muscles that was said to be Saki's right hand man. That photo had little to do him justice.

She stood then and leveled a glare on the over sized man that would make most shrink back in fear. "What are you doing here, Hun? You're violating the contract with your presence."

He just smirked, "You see about that, missy. The Master has decided that you're taking to long in fulfilling your obligations to him so he sent you a very unfriendly reminder." As he spoke Foot ninja seemed to flood in through the hole in the wall brandishing an assortment of weapons at her and the turtles. "And since the turtles seem to be here as well I think it's time to end this freak show freak by freak by assassin."

Before Artemis could open her mouth to reply the sound of a door being kicked in came from behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw commandos race inside. They flew to their knees rifles up and ready to fire on anyone that moved. "What the hell?!" Leonardo said and Artemis graced the turtles with a glance to see they were just as confused as she was. Their was something oddly about the soldiers' dress but Artemis couldn't place it until a smooth sounding voice floated through the door.

"Well... Well... Well... I came to gather a new specimen and not only do I find several of them but I get to meet the lovely Artemis as well."

"Bishop!" Master Splinter yelled as the man stepped into view.

Artemis had heard of Bishop but never before had she seen him. He was wearing some form of battle armor that was completely foreign to her in both appearance and design. His stride told her to watch her step around him because he was overly confident for a very good reason. He wasn't someone she wanted to tangle with. She was confident that in a fight he dominated the battlefield.

"What are you doing here?!" Hun demanded from the other side of the room. "This has nothing to do with you so get out of here before your sent home in a box!"

"I doubt you would be able to do that," Bishop replied smugly.

Artemis decided to cut her losses. She didn't want to get in a three way fight with th turtles, Hun, and Bishop. She had a bad feeling that she wouldn't win a fight like that. The _other_ three sides had the advantage of numbers on their sides while she was all alone. And what was she suppose to do about Donatello? She couldn't just leave him hanging there in the free for all the was surely to come.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glint of metal that turned out to be Honeycutt. She breathed a sigh of relief, Donatello would be safe with his brothers and their friends. Her eyes ran over the groups she was facing and she hoped that she was right. With Don in the capable and protective hands of his family and friends it was high time for her to vacate the premises. "Hun," she said facing the crime lord. "Your presences here as well as the government official," she jerked her thumb backwards at Bishop. "Is in direct violation of the terms of agreements that your Master agreed to when he first contracted me. Since this is both a first and second offense I no longer have to honor the contract." She glanced briefly at Leonardo trying to gauge his reaction to her words, "I do not have to kill the turtles or their Master and I am no longer in your employ." She tucked her hands into her jacket's pockets, turned and began to walk away, "Later."

"You're not going anywhere till you pay for hurting Donnie!" Raphael's voice reminded her of her little white lie and that she couldn't just easily walk away from this fight. No matter how much she wanted too.

"I have a few words from the Master for you," she could hear Hun as he cracked his knuckles. "Don't you want to hear them?"

"I can't just let you walk away, Artemis. Your wanted aroundthe world for various crimes and murders." Bishop said and she could just hear the eagerness in his voice. He could use her to receive 'brownie points' from someone.

She stopped and turned back to the three groups standing before her, each for a different intent. _I wanted a battle of epic proportions_, she thought to herself. She pulled her hands out of her coat and let them fall limply to her sides as she took a brief second to steady herself.

_I guess I got my wish_.


	11. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: No own… No sue… No problem…_

Sharpshooter

_Yes, __this chapter does have character death._

_... Don't give me those looks. I'm really telling you the truth this time. People die, honest. Though it may not be who you think ;)_

_I almost made this two chapters but I decided to be nice. You can thank me later._

Chapter Eleven

The room was so quiet that a pin could have been dropped and everyone would have known. The atmosphere remained tense as the four groups squared off, each waiting for the someone else to make the first move. Warriors shifted about slightly as the ready themselves for the up coming battle but, with no orders to attack forthcoming, they remained where they were.

Artemis wondered if she even stood a chance in the upcoming fight. She was having bad memories from when she first found herself ambushed, injured and out numbered. The Bently Massacre had scared her to the very core of her being. She still had nightmares of that night. Trapped in a mansion full of people out to kill her, all of them armed to the teeth, and all with two buck shot wounds already they were leaking her blood everywhere no matter how she tried to stop the bleeding. Her memories of that night were blurred but she remembered fearing that her ammo was going to run out before she was able to leave and the look of shock surprise on everyone's faces as she went through them both figuratively and literally. At least this time she didn't have to worry about an injury, just yet anyways.

The tension and waiting was bound to get to someone and it finally did. A Foot soldier took a step forward. His foot shifting on the debris that came from the collapsing wall making an audible shifting sound that seemed to go through the warehouse like a bomb had gone off. The noise paled in comparison to the sound of the gun cracking through the air barely a second later.

Artemis had reacted on instinct, hearing the Foot ninja taking a step towards her was all the excuse she need to shoot. A T-Bird Five was in her hand and without even looking she aimed and fired it at the ninja, dropping him like a sack of potatoes as the bullet entered his chest. She hadn't even graced him with a look instead keeping her own eyes fastened on Leonardo's as the two of them tried to stare each other down in a contests of wills.

That was about when the room descended into chaos. The echo of the gun had barely even begun to travel around the room when the commando leader yelled out, "FIRE!" Hun's voice bellowed, "Attack!" followed by the near silent rush of feet as the ninjas charged forward. Leonardo and Artemis staring contest was suddenly broken as the terrapin charged forward brandishing both his swords intent on wiping the smug look of Artemis' face.

Artemis was smiling. She was smiling because this was it, the fight of all fights. Artemis was never one for blood lust but even she enjoyed a good row every now and then. From what she could tell this was going to be a good fight –if not the best- she had ever had the honor of participating in and that little thought was all she required to spring into action.

She pulled out her other T-Bird even as she flipped backwards to avoid the incoming fire from Bishop's men. The secret to fighting any gun slinger was to stay on the move and always be turning in a different direction. Even staying still for a moment could be all it took to be shot. The more random the moves the harder it was to be tracked by the rifle man. She had learned all the tricks to the gun fighting in her seven years of business.

She landed and opened fire with both guns. Her left gun was firing into the line of commandos aiming mostly for the guns themselves. She had encountered laser rifle before and found they made a rather impressive explosion if the gun was hit just right. An explosion from the left side of the room followed by cries of pain told her that she still knew where that spot was. As far as she could tell there was seven dead and another fourteen wounded men but she was too preoccupied to get a definite body count.

The ninjas faced the gun in her right hand which she aimed for the less fleshy but still vital parts of the body. The throat was the easiest target, allowing the bullet to pass through with almost no resistant as long as it didn't directly hit the spinal column. Even though the T-Bird wasn't known for it's fire power it could still travel through certain parts of the body seriously hurting or killing the first one hit and then going on to wound or kill the poor ninja behind them. She unloaded all of the T-Bird's nine shots into the men without so much as a blink leaving twelve ninjas dead and another six seriously wounded.

Her first attack was devastating and barely lasted ten seconds into the actual fight. With in that time span she had killed nineteen and left another twenty or so men injured. She hoped that the message was clearly broadcast to those she fought she was not to be taken lightly. She continued to smile as she moved forward again. Maybe this fight wouldn't be half as hard as she had originally thought is was going to be.

Moving forward meant she ran head long into a furious Leonardo. He lashed out bring both his swords down towards her head. Instead of dodging like she had in the past, Artemis brought up her arms so that her elbows were touching making a 'V' shape. She caught the blades in her forearms, pinched the blades between them effectively trapping the katanas for a moment.

Using Leo as a fulcrum, she jumped bringing both her legs up and lashing out at Raphael. The reinforced plates on her boots crashed into Raphael's sais as he block the kick. He had been stepping around Leonardo to help free Leo's blades from her arms. The resulting kick sent him backwards, throwing him off balance just enough that he lost his footing and fell to the ground.

Artemis wasn't done there. Using the momentum from the kick she pulled at the swords still caught between her arms. Like she hoped, Leo refused to let go of his weapons and she pulled him off his feet and whipped him around in a circle. Using Leo as if he was an improvised bo staff she brought him around and slamming simultaneously into both Michelangelo and Casey Jones. After knocking Aside Mikey and Casey, Artemis let go of Leo who landed in a jumbled heap with his friend and brother.

Now Artemis found herself facing Leatherhead again. Instead of backing down she charged the enraged mutant and let him reach for her. Just before he could grab her, Artemis faked to the left side before suddenly spring to the right. Her hand caught on his wrist and she used it as a spring board to help her leap over him.

Leatherhead was not to be out down there. He brought his head up as she vaulted overhead and attempted to snap his jaws down on her. Artemis saw him turning his head upwards and twisted herself around in midair. She placed her palms on the points of both his lower and upper jaw. Using his jaws as if they were a vaulting horse, Artemis pushed off and began to flip through the air as if she was in the Olympic Games.

As she flipped through the air, Artemis released the cartridge from her right hand gun. She then brought the gun back to her belt and slammed the butt down into a specially designed pouched that she had created after Bently tried to cheat and kill her. The pouch was open on top and looked more like a reinforce pocket so that remained open at all times. She had six on her belt each capable of holding a total of three magazines for her hand guns. A thin magnetized metal plate in the bottom of each pouch prevented the magazines from falling out but wasn't strong enough to hold them in the pouch after they had been locked into a gun. It cut her reloading time drastically and allowed her to reload her gun one handed, a plus in both columns as far as she was concerned.

She hit the ground in a roll and came up facing the commandos again. Using her left hand gun, she fired off the remaining three shots at the troops. They seemed to have figured out her strategy when dealing with them because when she brought her gun up they tucked their weapons down out of her sight. Her first shot hit a soldier in the chest rather then his gun. Realizing what they had done, her second shot hit a soldier in the forehead and he reeled backwards from his crouched position with his gun still clutched in his dead hand. Her third shot hit the gun in the side and the mini generator used to focus light particles exploded with a resounding boom.

As the debris went flying behind her, Artemis turned back to the other side of the building to see where the ninjas were and what they had been up to in the past fifteen seconds her back was turned to them. Her eyes widened a fraction when she saw a wall of shurikens flying towards her. She didn't have a chance to dodge so she brought up her arms to cover her face and neck.

Her arm guards took the hit as well as the thin metal plate she had put into the back of her gloves. She had learned a hard lesson after getting hit with one of Raphael's sais. The skin on the hand was constantly being moved and flexed making deep cuts hard to stop bleeding and heal. She had hoped that the thin plates would prevent her hand from being cut open again in case another sai hit it, but they seemed to do an admirable job at stopping the shurikens as well.

After the last strike, Artemis lowered her arms. She wasn't expecting to come face with katana as several ninjas rushed forward following the barrage. she was able to side step the first one and slammed her left arm into the back of his neck hoping that the heavy metal arm guards would knock him out. What she had expected was the sound of flesh being stabbed or the slight jerk as the man died. Taking a second to glance down at her right arm she noticed that the shurikens had become embedded in the Kevlar in the arm guards. It had the shurikens pinched just right so that she now had spiked arm guards instead of blunt ones.

She smiled at the modification and decieded to sent her thanks to the ninjas. She jumped up, twisting herself in the air and letting the center of her shin strike another ninja barreling down on her. She could tell it was a direct hit because she could feel the man's face buckle inward as the bones were shattered. His body flew backwards knocking down several of his companions in his flight. She caught a flicker of black off to her right and turned her head just in time to see a ninja stabbing at her throat.

She jerked her head to the side, narrowly avoiding the katana aimed at her neck. Instead it cut into the collar of her jacket and bounced off part of the reinforced metal she had there. Gritting her teeth, Artemis slammed the gun and her fist up into the ninjas stomach and pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through his torso and exploded out his back in an explosion of red. Another Foot soldier coming up from behind his comrade was killed as the bullet impacted his chest and a third was seriously injured when the bullet finally came to a stop in the side of his face.

After the bullet had left the chamber, the gun had slid up inside the ninja's body and he slumped over the gun. Artemis spun to build up the momentum require to heave the man and let him fly into another group of ninja. She had to admit that these ninjas weren't very good -at least no where's near on level with the turtles- and the only thing that the Foot soldiers seemed to have going for them was their numbers.

The thundering of heavy footsteps and growling alerted her that Leatherhead didn't like to be used as a springboard. She quickly turned to the mutant who was charging her with his one shoulder lowered and his arm tucked up under it. Artemis braced herself as he rushed forward. It was time she stopped dancing away from the crocodile and faced him head on.

When he was still a good ten feet from her she caught a blur of movement coming at him from the side. "Back off, freak," Hun said as he punched the reptile in the side. "She's mine!" The force of the hit was extensive. Leatherhead had been caught completely off guard and had been knocked clear off his feet to go sailing through the air and crash into a group of Bishop's men who had been preparing to take aim. Members of the commando unit who hadn't been hit by Leatherhead's bulk attacked him as he stood again. Growling and swing his massive arms the crocodile began to fight back against the black clothed men who seemed to be swarming him like ants.

Artemis didn't get much more of a chance to watch the fight because she had larger problems at the moment. Hun was adamant about smearing Artemis into the floor. She found herself retreating as the giant advanced swinging and trying to grab onto her to make her stop moving around. Unlike Leatherhead, Hun had obviously had some martial arts experience which made it harder get a hit in on him especially since he tried to grab her after each and every block.

A swish of blond caught her attention and a giggle escaped her. After all she was a girl, why not fight like a stereotypical girl? When Hun swung again instead of jumping backwards she leaped forward ducking underneath his arm. Using his confusion against him, Artemis used one of his knees that was slightly bent to get her some additional height as she reached for her goal. She flipped over his head and as she went over him she reached out and grabbed his blond ponytail as it whipped around his neck. She landed on his back in a crouch pulling on his hair for all she was worth.

"GGGGAAAAHHAAGAGGAAAA!" Hun roared as she pulled on his hair. She tried to line up a shot at the back of his neck but seeing him reach back for her made her rethink her strategy. She released the hair, narrowly avoiding his hands as they clutched at her, and flipped backwards onto the ground. The momentum from her jump made her do another flip to help get rid of some of the excess kinetic energy so she wouldn't fall over when she landed.

She wasn't expecting to come out of her flip to come face first with a hockey stick.

She counted herself lucky as the hockey stick slammed into her chest, at least it hadn't been across the throat. Being clothes lined was anything but a fun time. She figured that Casey had just misjudged the hit and had been intending to nail her in the throat but she had come out of her flip faster or higher then he anticipated. Either way it still hurt to be hit like especially as her legs kept going forward as her upper torso came to a complete stop.

As her legs came up she curled them into her body and wrapped an arm around the hockey stick. "WOAH!" she heard Casey say as she did a complete flip over his hockey stick and landed on the other side. The moment her feet touched the ground she jerked the hockey stick back towards Hun. Casey, who wasn't prepared for her to be back on her feet let alone fighting was pulled off his feet and thrown backwards when he lost his grip on his hockey stick. Hun, who was turning to see where Artemis had gone to, found himself with a face full of vigilante butt as Casey bounced off his face.

"Why you little-" Artemis dropped the hockey stick and ducked as she spun around. She just barely avoided the knuckle of the sai that had been directed at the base of her skull. She rolled off to the side as a green foot came flying in at her head and then popped herself back up in time to block another sai, this one all business as it came at her face. She then twisted again dodging the kick that came in at her side so that Raphael was now between her and Hun.

Artemis risked a quick glance at Hun just in time for her to see him slam Casey down by the shoulders and pin him to the ground with one hand. The other hand was being pulled back in a fist. Artemis could just imagine how easy Hun could shatter Casey's skull. Feeling partially responsible for Casey's predicament, Artemis decided to send him a little help by express airmail.

As Raphael lunged towards her again, Artemis flipped over him. She reached down and grabbed his bandanna tails as they streamed out behind him. As she went down she pulled on his headband as hard as she could. The turtle was the catapulted over her head and as she let go he went flying. Artemis smiled as Raphael's shell collided hard with Hun's face. The dull cracking noise followed by Hun's roar of pain told her that he was less then thrilled about his little present.

For the first time since the battle began, Artemis found herself able to catch her breath. She stayed crouched down where she was watching as Hun began swing at Raphael and the turtle began hitting back. Casey suddenly popped up over Hun's shoulder and wrapped his arms around Hun's neck, squeezing for all he was worth as Raph began hitting and kicking Hun in the solar plexus. "That's gotta hurt," she mummbled glad that she wasn't being tag teamed like Hun was.

She looked around to see where every one else was. Leatherhead seemed to be cleaning house with Bishop's men. As she watched the large gator twisted around slapping three men away with his tail then he bit through one poor guy's gun which backfired and split his hand apart. Leatherhead didn't even pause a moment and punched the screaming guy who was clutching the bloody stump where his hand had once been. He flew backwards with the force of the hit and impacted into one of the beams actually denting it. "That's got to hurt," she said again.

She looked off to her right to see how the rest of the Foot soldiers were fairing. Unfortunately for them, the Foot soldiers were getting the clocks royally clean by a Michelangelo and Leonardo. Michelangelo used a crescent kick, fell into a roll, came up behind another ninja and kicked him hard in the back at the same time Leo was punching one ninja, elbowing one trying to sneak up on him then delivering a roundhouse kick on a third member that had just been picking himself up off the ground. The two flying ninjas met each other in midair. The two turtles hadn't been idly this whole time, running after their respective ninjas. Seconds after the ninjas hit each other and before they could fall to the ground the turtle brothers spun around and slammed their shells back into each other with the poor ninjas caught in between. "Nope, that's gotta hurt," Artemis said wincing in sympathy as the brothers bounded off as if they hadn't just squashed two people between them to take on more Foot ninja.

She turned around, staying low, and looked to where she had left Donatello. He was missing, only a chain hanging in the air showed where he had been, but before she could worry about him -which still didn't make any sense to her- she caught sight of that red headed girl peaking up over a set of crates near the back wall watching something that Artemis couldn't see. Suddenly she ducked down and Artemis saw Bishop back peddling into view as if he had been hit by something. Master Splinter came into view following his opponent and whipping around a long chain which Bishop caught around his arm and grabbed hold pulling the improvised whip out of his hands and then attacking Master Splinter the same way the rodent had just attacked him.

Since everyone seemed to be to busy to notice her, Artemis decided that it was high time that she headed out. Casting about to make sure no one was watching her she swiftly ran across the room, ducking and weaving her way through the debris that had piled up and avoiding anyone who might give away her position. She slipped into the shadows behind a stack of crates, put away her guns, and silently began to scale them.

Two Foot ninjas were up on top of the crates as well but they seemed to focused on their aiming to notice Artemis slip past. She became curious and looked over their shoulders to see what was up. They were watching Michelangelo and Leonardo's fight with keen interest. One suddenly pointed a finger at himself and then at Michelangelo before jabbing his thumb at his cohort and then pointing to Leonardo. The other ninja nodded and they both brought up their bows while reaching to the quiver on their backs for arrows.

Artemis rolled her eyes. _Really? _she thought. She glanced down at her arms happy when she saw their were still a few shuriknes stuck into the weaved Kevlar. She moved forward and before the ninjas could pull forth their ammunition she wrapped her arms around their throats, making sure that the shurikens pierced into their necks. "Hi," she whispered into their ears. She moved quickly dragging her arms across their throats tearing valuable muscle, tissue and blood vessels. "Bye," She brushed her hands together and then moved on her way. "There's my good deed for today," she whispered as she went about her way.

Reaching the upper supports with no other enemy encounters, Artemis found herself creeping across the network of beams heading towards where she had last seen April. She knew it would have been smarter to just quietly sneak out a window, go back to her penthouse, take a nap and then fly out on the first available plane heading for Greece the following day. Besides, this entire assignment had been nothing but a flop. She hadn't even had a chance to kill her targets before her business partner sent someone in to kill her. Usually they at least waited until after she had already done the killing.

She knew why she couldn't leave. She had to make sure he was alright and maybe figure out why she was so obsessed with that turtle's well being. What was there about that turtle that preoccupied her thoughts more then the other turtles or even anyone she had ever met? Ever since she was young and vowed to become an assassin she swore she would only look after herself and no one else. Then this turtle comes along out of the blue and she finds herself bending over backwards for him. It was really beginning to aggravate her to no end.

She perched above them looking down as the small group hid behind a crate. April kept watch on the fight between her friends and their enemies. She always ducked her head down if someone came to near to their location or if someone seemed to look their way. After a few seconds she would look back out onto the battlefield. Behind her and kneeling next to Donatello supporting his head was Honeycutt who looked as if he was monitoring his vital signs or something. Occasionally his voice would float up to where she was hiding usually addressing April about Donatello medical needs or responding to one of April's quiet queries that Don was still alright just unconscious.

A loud crash brought her out of her observation enough to see what had happened. While the crash was loud enough for her and those she watched to hear, the turtles and their friends contiued to fight on as if nothing had happened. Artemis turned around on the beam and leaned out slightly to catch the glimpse of the action. As far as she could tell from the way Bishop was walking away from a caved in crate and the rat tail snaking its way out of the splintered wood pile, Bishop had won the round against Splinter.

She watched as Bishop headed right towards the crate where those she had been watching were hiding. She could hear April take several deep breaths and the Professor voice telling her to stay down. She laid down on the beam so she didn't have to worry so much about falling off it as she leaned further over the side wrapping her arms around the beam in a hug to help her stay on it. April stepped around the crate and brought her hands up in a classic defensive pose. Despite the obvious intent to protect Donatello, Bishop just kept walking toward her. Artemis reevaluated April. She may be overly emotional at times but she had guts standing up to Bishop like she was.

"I won't let you take him," Artemis blinked as April's voice rang out loud and clear with only a small trace of fear at the end. Take him? Take who?

"I doubt very much you or the Professor can stop me from taking my prize."

Artemis gritted her teeth and drew herself back up into a crouch on the beam. He was going to take Donatello? The unfamiliar surge of protectiveness over the turtle welled up in her again. She didn't make any noise as she calmly hopped off the beam and flew almost twenty feet to land with a gentle thump next to and slightly ahead of a startled April. "What about me?" she asked the government agent before her. "Think I'll be a little more of a challenge."

"Doubtful," Bishop said not surprised in the least that she had suddenly fallen from the ceiling. "You take your opponets by surprise in a straight out fight your skill are thrid rate at best." He gave her a smile she had only seen on the most learchous of men, "The only reason you are vauble to me is as a barginning chip to gather some help from some other nations who would love to see your head on a silver platter. Other then that, you are almost as worthless as these two."

Artemis quirked her eyebrow at him and tried not to let her anger tint her voice, "I think you'll find me a lot tougher then you think. I'm not a lightweight." For a second she and Bishop tried to glare each other down. Both of them smirking at the other. Artemis decided that the previous fights had just been the equivalent of foreplay or a warm up before a workout.

This was going to be the real battle.

All it took was a slight twitch -though Artemis wasn't sure if she did it or if Bishop had moved- to have them both lunging at each other. Artemis threw a small round house punch that was blocked with ease. Bishop lashed up trying to catch her in the stomach with his free hand only the have her step back. Artemis spun around sweeping out with her foot at about waist level making Bishop step back. He then came forward with a quick feint to the left and a punch to the right. Artemis easily blocked both with her forearms. There was something off about his movements, they seemed slower then they had been when fighting Splinter, more thought out and methodical. "Are you done playing?" she asked as the agent stepped back again.

He brought his fist up, "I thought you would never ask."

This time when they lunge at each other there was no holding back. Blocking a punch coming at her face, Artemis could feel the power in it shake her to the very core. Bishop's movements had become much stronger and faster. She was able to match him in speed, if not exceed him, but he had her outmatched in strengh. They danced around in circles like that for awhile, trading punches and kicks, sidestepping and blocking. It was like a dance. A dance in which only one could lead and only one who could walk away from it.

They had moved away from the source of the conflict and closer to where Splinter had fallen. As she dodged a punch aimed at her stomach and blocked a kick that came in at her head she spared a second to glance towads the rat only to see the crate where he had fallen was empty. She hadn't the time to spare Master Splinter anymore thought then that. Bishop seemed to sense her momentary distraction and lashed out, this time making contact with her ribs.

She jumped with the kick, helping to absorb some of the impact, but pretended that he had actually kicked her to draw him off balance. She fell back twisting slightly to the side and letting out a little whimper as she 'struggled' to maintain her footing. Predictably, Bishop took a step forward and that was all the time she needed to fall backwards into a flip, catching him in the chin with her feet.

The result was even better then she had hoped. Out of all her attacks she knew that she had the most power in her back flip kick even if it did have a habit of leaving her open to attacks. Her Sensei had always explained to her that the best offense and defense is not how many moves you know and can preform but how many circles you can complete before your opponent could. Bishop learned this the hard way as he flew backwards and through the stack of crates out into the main floor. The second she landed on her feet, Artemis was off and running after him. After all she had heard about Bishop she found it hard to believe that a little kick like that would have taken him down.

As she run through the hole he had left and jumped over the rubble she heard Mikey's voice say, "I just found Bishop but I still don't see Artemis!"

"Then you should open your eyes," Artemis said as she used the turtle whose was back to her as a spring board. Bishop had caught himself and was currently brushing the dust from his suit like he was going through a daily occurrence for him. Now that she was higher then him she could put all her weight behind the punch and -thanks to Michelangelo- she would have gravity on her side as well.

She wasn't all surprised when Bishop caught her fist a split second before it hit, though she had been wondering if she could knock him out with that single punch. Gripping her fist tightly, Bishop swung her around and downwards so that her back was going to slam into the concert that made up the flooring of the warehouse. Deciding that she liked her back intact, Artemis grabbed Bishop's wrist with her free hand and tucked her legs up so that they bent back against themselves with her feet pressed into her butt. Instead of being slammed into the ground she caught herself and then pulled Bishop forward and off his feet as she stood.

Instead of launching him forward like she had done earlier with Raphael, the agent kept a grip on her wrist, caught himself like she had done and then pulled her off to her one side. Unable to free herself or resist his strength, Artemis went through with the throw. Again when he let go of her she continued to hold on. She planted her feet and twisted taking Bishop off his feet again and slamming him into a group of Foot soldiers that were standing there patiently for her to make use of them. Bishop then caught himself and the process was continued.

Artemis wasn't sure how long they were both going along trying to see if they could throw the other off or put them through some random object or person. It felt like hours of the same moves over and over again when it could only have been a few minutes at most. Artemis was beinning to tire of this little stage in the game so she purposely let go and let Bishop therow her across the room.

She flew through the air, end over end, trying to right herself. She doubted the wisdom of her actions until she impacted with several soft and cushy things that fell over. They were soft and she took a moment to relax before sitting up to go back to the fight. Seeing a green face in the pile of dazed ninjas she had landed on she reached out and patted his head as if he was a dog. "Thanks, Raphael!" she said as she jumped up to continue her fight with Bishop.

Instead of meeting her halfway, Bishop scooped something up from the ground spun it around and then threw it at her. She put her arm up in the way and the ball and chain wrapped around her forearm several times before it was pulled taunt. Her arm was jerked forward and she found herself being pulled forward, off balance and stumbling.

Bishop suddenly appeared in front of her and before she even had time to react he punched her in the gut. She could taste blood in her mouth as the force of the impact was so great that Artemis was thrown backwards. The chain was suddenly jerked and she found herself flying forward again this time to take a kick in her side the set her flipping through the air. She impacted with something that felt like a steel beam before she was pulled back towards Bishop by her arm. She was beginning to understand what it felt like to be a paddle ball and she decided she didn't like it one bit.

As she flew towards him again she drew one of her guns and began firing it in Bishop's general direction. She heard several pings coming from the bullets bouncing off his armor and growled under her breath. Of course, his outfit just had to be bullet proof. Her luck was seriously looking bad at the moment.

She was hit again and lost the grip on her gun that went spinning off to somewhere. Instead of pulling her back like he had been, Bishop suddenly pulled the chain up sending Artemis up and over his head to be slammed hard onto the ground behind him. The impact was enough that Artemis was sure that the concert below her was cracked and that Sensei was in serious going to be in serious need of repairs. She also found herself glad that she employed the use of body armor, it was probably what saved her life.

Even though the body armor had taken the majority of the hit, Artemis still found herself dazed and hurting. She moaned as she forced herself to sit up rubbing the back of her neck. Heavy footsteps coming up behind her reminded her what was going on and that now wasn't the time to be sitting around in pain no matter how much she wanted to have a five minute break. She waited until Bishop was almost on top of her before she made her move.

With the hand not tangled in the chain, Artemis grabbed a good sized rock and threw it behind her. By the sound of the grunt she had caught Bishop by surprise and had hit him in the face, something she had been hoping for. While the other hand was heaving the rock, Artemis spun the other chain, looping it several times around Bishop's arm, then pulled on it. Now both for them were tangled in the chain.

After the rock had been thrown Artemis planted all her weight on that hand and swung her legs up and around. Both her feet caught Bishop in the face and left her in a single handed hand stand. Instead of continuing the circle, Artemis pinched Bishop's neck between her feet and then fell into a roll, pulling Bishop's head forward. The action not only allowed her to get back up onto her feet but also threw Bishop over her to land on his back in front of her dragging the chain with him.

Artemis took a precious second to look at the chain wrapped around her wrist. She did not want to have a repeat performance of being the human paddle ball. She was just reaching towards the chain when a resounding explosion rocket the warehouse. The epicenter was less then twenty feet from her and Bishop and both of them found themselves flying through the air with the shock wave. They landed in a tangled heap of limbs and chain. As she struggled to free herself from underneath Bishop, Artemis heard a dull roaring noise that made her blood freeze in her veins.

Hoping that she was wrong, Artemis spared a second to glance at where the explosion had taken place. She recognized the area as one of the places she had stored some grenades and some of her other explosive charges for her gun. Something -possible one of the laser rifles- must have scored a direct hit on the charge and activated the explosives. The roaring she had heard was from a fire that had been ignited by the explosive hitting the dry wood that made up the crates. The crates acted like kindling and in the few seconds it took her to get back to her feet half the warehouse was ablaze and the fire was still spreading.

With even more inscentive to finish her fight with Bishop and get out of there, Artemis wrapped the chain several times around Bishop's neck. Bishop, who had just been getting ready to stand up found his lower legs being stepped on and the chain wrapped around his throat and pulled back on effectively choking him. Stranglation was one of her lest favorite ways of killing but at this point Artemis was willing to do just about anything to get rid of the agent.

What she hadn't been prepared for was for Bishop to suddenly flick his head backwards sending his sunglasses flying at her face. The sunglasses bounced off the bridge of her nose causing her eyes to water and making her instinctively clutch at her nose. Part of her brain not caught up in going 'ow!' wondered why she hadn't noticed the sunglasses before which raised the question of why Bishop was wearing sunglasses in the first place. It was the middle of the night and they were inside a building so why would he need a pair of sunglasses?

Artemis was so caught up in her thoughts that she had forgotten about the fight she was currently in. A sudden yank on the chain reminded her of where she was and what was going on. Her reaction of pulling back on the chain came to late and she found herself being thrown through the air to be slammed against a beam. Before she could react, a kusari-gama was slammed into the beam at such and angle that the blade and the handle of the scythe was pinning her arm to the beam. If Bishop let up on the chain then she could pull her arm but until he did she was effectively pinned.

"Tell me something Artemis," Bishop didn't even sound winded as he spoke. She turned her head towards him from where she had been trying to pull the kusari-gama free. His arm wrapped around the chain was keeping it taunt while in the other he held a discarded katana. "How well will you be able to operate as an assassin with only one arm?" With that, he raised the katana and brought it swishing down.

Artemis couldn't believe that he could actaully cut through her arm in one slice but as she jerked away from the beam screaming in pain she knew she was wrong. She stumbled backwards and off to the side clutching at where her arm had once been as she fell to her knees. She clutched at the injury futilely trying to stop the bleeding as the blood fell throguh her fingers and onto the ground at an alarming rate. Her eyes were wide and she beginning to feel tears beginning to well up in her eyes as she gasped for breath.

Movement behind her reminded her of her advisory. She needed a second to slow the bleeding before she could even hope to defend herself. Out of all other options she tucked her head down to her chest as her hand slipped under her jacket and pulled out the Orion. Not really caring where she was aiming, she pointed the gun behind her ad fired off one of its explosive rounds.

The explosion sent her flying in one direction and Bishop in the other. She lost the grip on her gun when she hit and fell into an uncontrolled roll finally coming to a stop against a beam. She wanted to close her eyes but the warehouse was really beginning to heat up as the fire raged and she had to slow down the bleeding. Trying not to look at where her arm had once been, Artemis took some of her jumping cable and wound it around her upper bicep pulling it as tight as possible with her teeth and hand.

She let her head thump back against the beam she was leaning against and held the would again praying that the bleeding would stop. Judging by the blood she could still feel spurting out of the cut her improvised tourniquet was doing little to prevent her from bleeding to dead. She needed to do something else to stop the bleeding.

She rolled her head listlessly to the side and looked at a burning chunk of wood nearby. It would hurt and she doubted that she would even be able to remain conscious afterwards but it might be her only chance at surviving. Besides, Bishop had to pay for what he did. With that thought firmly placed in her head she snatched up the wood and held the burning end to her wound.

She gritted her teeth to prevent herself from screaming as she let the fire burn her arm. She desperately thought of anything to avoid the pain. She found that her thoughts were ironically turning to Donatello and if he was alright. She chided herself. Why on earth would she be worried about him? It was because of him that she was in this predicament and possible about to die. If anything she should be angry at him for doing whatever it was that made her want to protect him.

What the hell had he done to make her feel like this anyways?

She tossed the board away. The deed had been done. She placed a hand over the wound only to jerk it away with a cry of pain. The burns made the remains of her arm hurt horribly and made the area tender as hell. She finally forced herself to look at where her arm had been to confirm that the bleeding had finally stopped. She had one more thing to do before she died.

Revenge.

She forced herself to her feet ignoring both the stench that threatened to make her lose what little was in her stomach and the blinding pain coming from her… stub. She was going to make him pay. No one hurt her -especially as serious as this- and then just walked away. It didn't matter that he thought she was dead, no one turned their back on her without regretting it.

Using a shortcut that went behind the crates and the wall, she headed towards where sh had last seen Don. She was positive that was were he was going. She soon reached the spot she wanted, partially hidden in shadows despite the raging inferno that was growing hotter and hotter by the second. She pulled out her last T-Bird Five and checked it over, thrilled that it looked to be in prefect working order.

Calm and collected footsteps caught her attention. She held her breath and did her best to become one with the crates she was hiding behind. She hoped that he wouldn't smell the burnt flesh on her arm. Actually if he did it might just give her the extra second of surprise to get him back one for tearing off her arm.

Just as his boot came around the corner of the crates, Artemis exploded from her hiding place. She gave didn't even give him a second to react before she pulled the trigger repeatedly. Each bullet connecting with Bishop's face and neck where he didn't have any bullet resistant material. She didn't stop pulling the trigger until she was out of bullets and even then she kept pulling the trigger. The gun making hollowed clicking sounds.

Finally she forced herself to stop. "That's for the arm," she growled at Bishop's lifeless body laying on the ground before her.

Artemis gasped for breath as she fell to one knee clutching just above the stub that was all that remained of her arm. She was exhausted and felt like she could faint at any moment. She idly wondered again if Donatello was alright. Her mind was still trying to understand why she had just fought to protect him at the cost of her arm. A smile spread across her face despite the pain she was in. Her only regret was that she never figured out what was so special about him.

"Artemis!" a voice called through the roar of the flames and minor explosions going off through out the remains of the warehouse. She knew it would only be a matter of time before the fire and explosions ate away at the infrastructure enough to cause the whole building to cave in. She didn't think she had the strength to move and found herself closing her eyes waiting for the end.

"Artemis!" the voice was louder then it had been and through the flames and she opened her eyes to see who was calling for her. As she watched, Leonardo came into view. He was looking every which way as if searching for someone. He finally looked in her direction and called out her name again before running towards her.

She shook her head, after all she had put him through, he actually ran around in a burning building to try and save her. The turtles were tenacious bastards she would give them that. She forced herself to stand on shaky legs, finding a strengh she didn't realize she had. He was running hard but she knew there was no way he could reach her in time. Giving him one of her trademark smirks, she raised her hand and gave him an American military salute.

An explosion rocket the building and Leonardo found himself scrambling to remain on his feet. He was forced to take his eyes off Artemis for a moment as he dodged a falling roof panel that was on fire. When he looked back to where she had been there was nothing but flames and debris littering the ground. "Artemis!" he hollered hoping to hear anything to indicate she was alright.

A series of explosions came from the other side of the building and a massive crack that chilled Leonardo's blood came from above him. There was no way he could reach Artemis and get her out before the building fully gave way. There was no guarantee that she was still alive he told himself as he reluctantly started back the way he came.

Leonardo ran through the remains of the warehouse keeping an eye on his surrounding as the building began letting out disturbing creaks and groans. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the whole building collapsed. He jumped off to the side and the shimmed to the left dodging objects as he neared one of the side doors that led out of the building. There was a popping coming from somewhere behind him that only made him run faster. Someone's ammo had grown hot enough that the shell were beginning to explode. The last thing he needed was for one of the bullets to hit him in the leg and trap him inside the building.

As he emerged from the flaming building he realized how much of a temperature difference there was. The night's cold air caressed his overheated skin as he ran for the Battleshell parked in a nearby alley. "Leo!" Raphael was standing at the entrance of the alley waiting for him. "You okay?" he asked as Leo slowed to a walk next to him.

Leo glanced into the alley to see the back doors to the Battleshell were wide open. Donatello was laying on a gurney inside while April, Leatherhead and Honeycutt looked over him. Master Splinter, Casey and Michelangelo stood just outside the doors watching him as he panted for breath. Everyone was alright and made it out no worse for the wear. Reassured his family and friends were safe Leonardo said in a regretful tone, "I couldn't reach her in time."

"Don't sweat it, bro," Raphael said punching him gently in the shoulder. "Ya tried. Even if I think it wasn't worth risking yer life for her, at least ya gave it a shot."

Leo glanced back at the fiery remains of the building. She hadn't deserved to go like that, despite their differences Artemis had protected Donatello, April and Honeycutt from Bishop and that was something that had Leonardo giving her an ounce of respect despite what she had done. She could have left but instead she stepped forward and took on an agent that even he ad his brothers had a hard time beating. The distant sounds of sirens were beginning to draw closer and he began to move towards the Battleshell with his family. As he crawled in the back and closed the doors he couldn't help but think that he should've at least tried to reach her in time.

_Told you there was going to be character death! ;)_


	12. Epilogue

Sharpshooter

Epilogue

He knew when he was in trouble and right now he knew. Oh, yes he was in so much trouble that he felt like he was drowning in it. He remained crouched where he was listening to the soft clinking of a teapot, the rustling of paper and the ticking of a clock.

He hated waiting.

Yet he knew he had to. In fact he had every right to be where he was right now. He had failed. Utterly disgraced himself and his Master. The Master, as far as he was concerned, had every right to kill him for what he had done.

It would be better and less painful then some of the other things he had seen him do.

The wait finally came to an end when his Master's voice cut through the stillness of the room like a blade. "Hun," he could hear the anger in his voice and knew that a swift end would not be befitting him. He would be lucky to be killed in the end. He had heard this tone in Saki's voice before when Baxter Stockman had failed him a third time. Baxter had been left as little more then a head in a robotic spider-like shell "Explain to me again why you went against orders and attacked Artemis."

"Master, I…" he wanted to say something to defend himself but he couldn't. Everything that came to his mind he knew would be too trivial and too small to justify his actions. "I-I didn't think the Foot should have had to employ an assassin. The death of the turtles should be by your hands and not by some hired gun's."

Again the silence filled the room as Hun continued to stare at the floor. He heard a pen scrapping along some paper followed by the faint sound of a tea cup being picked up, sipped and then set down. He forced himself to swallow to try and relieve his dried mouth.

"That is your excuse for coasting me fourteen ninja squads?! Blacklisting me from contracting an assassin again?! And possible have the Guild take action against me?!" Saki's voice half screamed out through the room causing Hun to jump. The dull thud of the desk being pounded came to his ears. A loud crash occupying the thump told Hun that the tea cup had been up seated and had rolled off the desk to land on the floor.

"Y-yes, Master," he ducked his head lower to the floor and waited to hear out his punishment. Would he lose an eye like Stockman did? Would a limb be taken? Would he be forced to tear out his own liver? Whatever it was he knew it wouldn't be a swift death. His actions deserve the most horrendous and unspeakable death to be dealt out by the Foot.

Seppuku.

"Luckily for you," Saki's voice was so quiet that Hun barely heard him over the thundering of his own heart. "You are to important for me just deal out a proper punishment. This time you are lucky. Next time it will be your life!"

If possible Hun bowed down further, knowing that he had been exceedingly lucky this time. He didn't feel as though he deserved his Master's forgiveness but he wasn't about to complain about it either. "Yes Master."

* * *

His mouth felt like someone had poured a truck load of sand in it before filling his muscles with cement. Everything seemed to ache and protest at the very thought of moving. His eyes felt they had been glued shut and the world sounded like it came through cotton batting that someone had stuffed his ears with.

As he started to come around more and more he became more aware of his surroundings. He was laying down on something soft and a fuzzy blanket had been spread out over him. Something was on his hand keeping him from moving it even more then a few inches at a time. He could feel bandages still wrapped around the injuries on his leg and shoulder. There also was an instant yet familiar sound that seemed to buzz in his ears.

He frowned trying to decipher the noise only to have it suddenly stop. That annoyed him to no end. How was he supposed to figure out that noise if it just went away on him?

Then the noise came back, calm and soft enough that he realized the canopy of noise before was from many sources. This was obviously from one source and it sounded like a voice. A very familiar voice that reminded him of comfort and safety. It seemed that with that thought Donatello's hearing was suddenly back. "Donatello. Donatello. It's time to wake up, my son."

Then a name popped into his mind and magically his jaws seemed to work. His voice sounded odd to his own ears but he was able to force out, "M-Master Splinter?"

A collective sigh that sounded like a balloon letting out all its air rippled through the room. A gentle paw touched the side of his face, "My son, can you open your eyes?"

It took him a few tries but finally his eyes blinked open to see his Master and Father watching him patiently with a smile on his face. After a moment he saw a slight movement off to the one side and turned his eyes to look at whatever it was. It turned out to be Mikey who was shifting impatiently from foot to foot obviously waiting for something. His eyes then went from him to his other two brothers, Casey, April, Leatherhead and finally to Honeycutt who was standing opposite from Master Splinter. They all seemed tense and waiting for him to do something. Licking his lips he said the only thing he could think of, "Hey, w-what's everyone looking at?"

"Donnie!" Donatello figured that he would have been squashed under his younger brother had Leo and Raph not grabbed him and held him back.

"How are you feeling?" Honeycutt asked as he leaned over him looking at his half lidded eyes.

"Tired," he shifted slightly under the sheets and moaned. "And sore. What happened?"

"You've been overdosed on Methaqualoe," Honeycutt said calmly. "Other then the wounds on your shoulder and thigh you seem to be fine if a little dehydrated."

Don nodded his head while he thought about that. "And Artemis?"

"Don't know," Leo said with a sigh. "I tried to go back for her but Bishop had already screwed her up pretty bad."

"Bishop?"

"Yeah, from what we can tell he found out you were at that warehouse and went to get you. Artemis and him got into a fight over ya," Raphael said with a shrug. "Don't worry Leo said they took each other out in the end so no worries."

"What happened to her?"

Leo sighed and looked off to the side to avoid every ones' looks but especially to avoid eye contact with Donnie. "Let's just say I don't think she wouldn't have enjoyed life if she had survived."

"Yeah, cause I would have pounded her into the ground for grabbing Donnie in the first place."

"How did she die? What do you mean by 'she wouldn't have enjoyed life'?"

Don's question was soft but more then audible for every one to hear. Leo looked at his brother and noticed the slight gleam in his eye meaning he wasn't going to be dropping this anytime soon. Leo sighed, "When I found her, it looks like she had shot Bishop several times in the head. The left side of her head and face was coated in blood but it didn't appaer to phase her." Leo closed his eyes, "What really would have been hard for her was that it looked like Bishop had somehow managed to take of her arm from about mid-bicep down." He spared his family the gorier details. He had seen the burns on her arm.

"She died?"

"Dude, she had a building that was on fire fall on her. Humans don't normally survive that with or with out the whole on flames part."

Donatello leaned back slightly into the pillows. He found it hard to believe that Artemis would get into a fight with someone like Bishop. She knew she wasn't a good fighter in hand to hand combat. She had said so herself. Bishop as way out of her league yet she had still fought him? Why?

He thought back to their last conversation. She had admitted to saving him and giving him medical attention. When he had made the comment of her getting rid of him she had denied rather venomously. She had even gone so far as to suggest keeping him as a pet. That was when Don realized that there was one big difference in Artemis between when they fought in April's apartment and to their last talk.

Her eyes.

During their fight her eyes had been hard and distance as if she was locking away part of herself to be able to kill him. When she had been laying against him in bed though her eyes looked like more like a child's, innocent and scared. Don wondered if she even had a chance to fully grow up before she became an assassin. She had seemed awfully young to him, no more then mid twenties and even then that would be to the highest end of the scale.

"Donatello? Are you alright?"

"Don't tell me yer upset she died!"

Don hadn't realized his eyes were closed until Honeycutt asked him the question. Blink his eyes open he looked first to the Professor then to his brother, giving him an exasperated look. "I'm just really tired and, yes, I am kind of upset she died."

"What the fuck, Don! She cut you up, drugged you, kidnapped you and held you prisoner for three days and yer upset she died?!"

"I don't think she was ever really given a chance to grow up Raph."

"What the hell makes you say that!" Raph was clearly upset and at a complete loss as to why Don would be sad that the assassin had died.

"Come," Leatherhead's voice suddenly said sensing that the argument was getting on everyone's nerves. "We should give Donatello a chance to rest. Now that he has awaken he should be fine." The large crocodile then began to herd Donatello's family out of the room making sure that Raphael was going along too.

"You could see it in her eyes," Donatello said just loud enough for his brother to hear before he and the family was forced to leave. Alone and in the relative silence of the medical room, Donatello fell asleep quickly wondering if he was giving enough time could he have been able to talk Artemis out of killing him and his family and leading a normal, peaceful life.

* * *

The charred remains sat on the table, barely in the recognizable form of a human. There was evidence that the figure had been wearing some form of armor, the metal was melted onto the corpse, making it little more then a pile of slag instead of actual human remains. There were also signs that the person had been killed before being torched. There were nine separate bullet wounds that had made hits ranging from the collar bone to the upper jaw.

Never the one to look away from a possible scientific discovery, Stockman had been both disgusted and shocked at the remains of his current employer. The fact that anyone was able to kill Bishop proved that the person was good. Judging by how many times he had been shot and the extent of the damage, Stockman figured that the person had to have phenomenal skills to be able to fire off nine rounds into the agent's head before he could react to their presences.

After he had finished his analyst of the corpse, Stockman began to move about the lab. His massive robot body moving with precision and care around the delicate instruments as he prepared to resurrect Bishop. He was a bit skeptical when the Captain, Bishop's right hand man, told him that the agent could be brought back to life. With all the alien technology he was just beginning to understand he was sure that it was possible and began researching away to do it.

It wasn't that Baxter liked Bishop any more then he liked Shredder or Hun but there were some perks to working with the government agent. The biggest perk was all the knowledge he was gleaming from the alien tech he had authorization to. One day, when he was finally free from being Bishop's pawn, he would show the world what Baxter Stockman was really capable of thanks to all the wonderful new knowledge he was slowly compiling.

Another advantage to working with Bishop was that the agent had the technology required to build a human body.

When his body had been slowly destroyed, piece by piece, by the Shredder for his repeated failures he had always dreamed of getting it back somehow. Bishop had the means to do this and to satisfy his own ends Stockman had agreed to help him if only so he could one day walk again as a human. Then he would take revenge against everyone who had laughed at him.

Especially those meddlesome turtles and that snot nosed red head!

With the tubes and electrodes in place and a premade test tube clone of Bishop resting on a table next to his remains, Baxter moved over to the labs command board. Bishop's unique DNA allowed his consciousness to be past through and electrical current into another body. It was a painful procedure but with the agent technically being dead it shouldn't feel the pain. His brain had been completely untouched by the bullets the agent should be awake in the next few moments.

Theoretically, it should work.

Flipping a massive switch that reminded him of something straight of the novel Frankenstein, Baxter listened as the massive electron emitted attached to the ceiling began to hum. A second later a current was emitted through the series of electrodes connected to Bishop's remains before the charge returned to the generator. The charge barely paused for a second before being admitted into the waiting clone still on life support.

He flipped the switch back, turning the generator down before walking over to the table. It had yet to show any signs of life but Baxter was a scientist and knew how to be patient. He didn't have to wait long before the clone's eyes snapped open and briefly glanced around the room as if seeing where it was.

Still Baxter waited. Just because it was functioning didn't mean that Bishop's conscious thought had been transferred. Of course if it hadn't been there was no way to try and repeat the procedure. Bishop's remains had liquefied into a pile of purplish slop making it impossible to try again.

The clone sat up and began to pull the tubes and electrodes attached to it's body. An all to familiar scowl was on its face reassuring Baxter that his boss was back among the living. "Enjoy your nap, I assume?" he asked in a bored tone. There was no sense in enjoying the fact that he had just brought someone back from the dead. After everything he had seen since working for Bishop he would have been surprised if Bishop hadn't woken up.

Bishop just gave him a scowl before swinging off the table. He stretched his muscles as he walked over to the scanner. Baxter rolled his eyes and followed. After a complete scan came back with negative results for Bio rejection he addressed Bishop again. "There are no signs of infections, Bio rejection or any other problems with this body." Bishop huffed and walked over to where a shirt waited for him on a table. "Don't I get a thank you or some other form of verbal response?" Stockman said as the agent began walking out of the lab shrugging on his coat.

Bishop paused at the door as it swished open. Turning enough so that he could face Baxter the agent said, "Why should I thank you for doing your job?" With that he walked out of the lab. The door closed behind him with a nearly silent swish.

"Hump," Baxter said folding his robotic arms in front of him. "Ungrateful bastard."

* * *

The shades were drawn blocking out the light and humidity as the temperatures sky rocketed into the nineties. This caused the room to be cast in shadows and filled with gloom but kept it at an acceptable temperature for the figure working out in the dark. A cell phone began ringing, blaring out the Mission Impossible theme song, but was studiously ignored by the person at the punching bag.

Left kick, right kick, followed by a punch that spun her around so she could elbow the defenseless bag. She went through the familiar routine of her workout as if it was second nature. There was just one thing throwing her off balance and slowing her down but it was a minor annoyance.

She suddenly back flipped, her feet just barely missing the bag. She landed in a hand stand grabbing the blade that had been on the ground behind her before flipping back onto her feet. She stood and began twirling the blade around her fingers as if it was a baton and not a deadly instrument.

She flipped it forward and back so that the blade lay along her forearm before twisting around in a high kick that would have been level to someone's head. She continued to fight against her unseen opponents using a variety of kicks at different heights and styles as well as slashes, stabs and blocks with her wakizashi. The kata she preformed was very complex but well known to her and done with precision.

She had changed up the ending. Instead of landing in a crouch with both hands brought in front of her as if holding a pair of guns, she flipped the spinning short sword up into the air as she spun around underneath it. It came back down, still flipping end over end, and she caught it at about eye level. Faster then the average person could blink it was gone from her hand again, sailing across the room to embed itself in the wall at about neck level to the average adult. She followed it, winding back and punching the punching bag with all her strength.

Only to begin cursing when her hand went through it up to her elbow.

Grumbling under her breath, she tried to pull it free with no success. The chain of the bag kept giving ground as she pulled and yanked at her arm. Finally, she gave up and placed both knees on the bag to try and pull herself free. It had worked in the past when she had done this. It proved effective once again as she fell onto her back on the floor accompanied by the sand that oozed from the hole like blood from a wound.

She propped herself up on her elbow looking at the fifth destroy punching bag in less then a month. "I go through more punching bags that way," she said out loud to no one in particular. She flipped herself back to her feet and looked at the bag with a smile. "I guess I don't know my own strength anymore."

Her gaze then went to her new arm. It was said to be impossible but if there was one thing she liked to do it was making the impossible possible. From about middle of her upper arm down to her hand was nothing but finely tuned, handcrafted animatronics all working in perfect symmetry. The metal 'arm' appeared to be an arm in shape and movement right down to four jointed fingers and a thumb. The circuitry was connected to the nerves in her upper arm so that the arm worked the same as her biological arm had before it had been removed.

Of course her new arm came along with some set backs. It was heavy. Even with it being constructed out of poly carbonic steel to help reduce the weight, the arm still weight almost forty two pounds. She only just began to learn how to deal with compensating for her balance when in combat.

Another point of concern was the sheer strength it wielded and her inability to actually feel anything with the arm. While being able to punch through certain objects was cool, she had discovered that if wasn't actively paying attention she could crush something without even realizing it. If she needed to use her finer motor controls to repair her scope's computer she had to be extra cautious as not to bend part of the gun or snap an innocent tool in half. If she could feel through the metal this wouldn't be a problem but there was no way to make metal feel.

She walked over to her wakizashi still sticking in the wall and pulled it free from the wall. She really didn't have much to complain about. She had her arm back. She could keep doing her 'night job'. She knew that the more she used the arm the better she would understand how to work around its disabilities.

It had been almost three months since she had actively taken a job. With the whole design process and construction of the arm she was surprised it hadn't taken longer. She was done with the preliminary testing, next would be the field test.

Something whispered through her mind as she tucked the blade away in its sheath. She should practice by going back to New York, finding that mutant and hrottling him until he told her what the hell had happened to her. That stupid over protective tendency she had for him nearly cost her life.

As it was she had been so close to giving up that she been ready to accept her death and was waiting for it. If his brother had tried to come after her she would have died. But seeing him risk his own life for her had given her a purpose to escape. She had to find out why she wanted to protect him and why his brother had come back for her in turn.

She knew better then to go after them right away. She needed to learn to use her arm all over again. She had to be in the best condition to take them on, they now knew her tactics for the next time around. If she went in half prepared and handicapped like she was they would easily defeat her and then turn her in.

And that was something to avoid at all costs.

The cell phone began ringing again, filling the room with the merry tune. She walked towards it with a purpose. It was time to stop convulsing and get back into the game. She scoped the phone up with her human hand and flipped it out without a second's hesitation. "You have ninety seconds to catch my interest," Artemis said with a smile of anticipation on her lips.

The goddess was back on the hunt.

* * *

_Sorry, I became too attached to Artemis after reading the live preview of the final chapter to let her die (yes, originally she was going to stay dead). I really like her and I love how she interacted with the turtles. And how could I kill Bishop? He's my favorite villain of all times_

_Bishop: Indeed._

_Uhhh… O-kay… So, yeah, I think I'll make a sequel._ _Maybe… depends on how I feel and if I can find inspiration for it._

_Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing!_


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